Rescue Me
by imortal-requiem
Summary: As far as Axel knew, Roxas could be clinically insane. It was definitely possible he had escaped his therapy and just happened to end up on a bench next to Axel; But as impossible as his stories were, Axel kept coming back for more. AkuRoku. Plot Twists
1. Prologue

**Hey there, and thanks for choosing to read my fic! This is my second for the Kingdom Hearts series (can it be called a series if it is a game? I believe so but still...), both of which are AkuRoku, so if you like my style I suggest you look into my other story! I'm used to writing things from more of a "spazzy and cute" perspective, but I'll just see how it goes with everyone. Note: italicized words are either thoughts, flashbacks, or conversation that most people can't hear... just keep that in mind. NOW PREPARE YOURSELVES, AND EMBARK! **

**P.S. I rated it M for all the heavy shit, mostly just to be safe. Also do the quotes at the beginning look different? That's because I changed them! My plot is unfolding in my mind as I write, so I edited to make it all fit better. Inconsistancy is BAD.**

_"I left my family knowing the consequences. I made my choice, and I haven't regretted it once."_

_"Why would you do something like that? Wouldn't it just make you more miserable?"_

_"Life made me miserable. More miserable than I deserved. But I'm not someone to sit and do nothing. I got a new one."_

The Beginning:

**BUZZ.** _What the hell is that noise?_ **BUZZ, BUZZ. **_Can't it tell I'm trying to sleep?_ **BUZZ, BUUUZZZZ, BUU- thunk. **_Of all the…_

Roxas reluctantly opened his eyes and peered over the edge of his bed to find his cell phone on the floor. _Oh. _The blond gingerly lifted the slim, silver device into his hand and flipped it open.

**THREE MISSED CALLS: KAIRI**

_Shit._ _I completely forgot about that!_ 'That' being his date with Kairi that day. Roxas snatched up his alarm clock from the small table next to his bed, and slammed it down in frustration after he'd read it.

**2:48 pm.**

In a rush he threw himself off his bed, nearly tripping on his sheets, and dove into the closet. Shortly after, articles of clothing were flying by his head. There went a rejected t-shirt, there a pair of jeans he wore last time, etc…

Once fully clothed, he sprinted out his door and skidded around a corner into the bathroom, cutting off his twin, Sora, drawing an irritated, "Hey!" from his brown-haired replica.

He muttered a hurried apology as he slammed the door and went to work fixing his hair, and brushing his teeth.

Roxas cursed quietly, toothbrush in mouth, and dug his phone out of his pocket, dialing numbers the second it was open.

"Roxas? Where are you? I've been waiting for almost an hour! Are you okay?"

"Sowy Kaiwi mah arlahm dehdn goa awf!"

"… Roxas, are you eating something?"

He swished and spat into the sink, ripping the door open and waving apologetically to Sora, who just laughed as he entered the bathroom himself.

"Brushing my teeth, actually. Sorry, Kai, I'll be there in five minutes! Really, I'm soooo sorry! I'll beg forgiveness when I get there, but you can wait five more minutes, right??"

He could almost hear her smiling on the other end as he gathered his wallet and munnie, dropping them into his pockets. "Sure, Roxas. I'll see you in five." They both hung up, and Roxas ran down half the stairs before giving up and jumping down the other half.

"Where the hell do you think you're going so fast?" Roxas nearly fell over as his momentum competed with the friction on his sneakers, and turned to face his father.

"I'm meeting Kairi, and I'm really late. Can I go now? Pleeeeeeease?"

"Let the kid go where he wants, Cloud. I'll keep you busy today." Roxas shuddered. _Gross._ No matter how much he liked that his widower father had moved on, hearing the new-ish boyfriend come on to him was still disgusting.

"LEAVING. NOW. BYE!" The blonde heard his father and Leon laughing as he ran out the front door. He sure hoped Sora had plans for that day, because staying home wasn't a healthy idea.

Meanwhile: Somewhere in France

"_Hey, Marluxia"_

_"Hmm?"_

_"We've been reassigned. Check it out."_

"Reassigned? How can you guys be reassigned? Does that mean I'm free? Is my contract fulfilled?"

_The man with the pink hair accepted the document from his companion. With their boss, reassignments happened often. Either he lost interest in his contractor, or they had disobeyed him. This one had gotten too boring, poor thing._

_"Well, you could say that," he replied, snapping his fingers. A large, pink scythe was summoned as he did this, making the girl's brown eyes grow wide with surprise._

"Marluxia, Larxene? What's happening? I get to go home now, right? My contract's been fulfilled, right?"

_So beautiful, and so full of hope. It was almost too bad that nobody made a contract with Xemnas and fulfilled it. They were all killed before that could ever happen._

_"Do you mind if I do it?" asked Larxene. Marluxia sighed, flippantly twisting a piece of hair around his finger. _

_"I suppose so, if only because you recruited her", the pink-haired man smiled lazily at her. Larxene gave him a contrastingly sharp curve of her lips in return. Meanwhile, Belle stamped her foot with impatience. She was tired of not knowing what this conversation was about._

_Larxene flicked her gaze to the girl, warningly; she calmed instantly, waiting for her to explain because one of them always did. "Do you remember, Belle, when we found you?"_

_She stiffened noticeably, and her skin paled a bit, but other than that Belle stood her ground. She nodded. _

_Marluxia smirked, "I remember the day we met. You were begging god to help your father, the poor old man, when he was dying from illness. Then we came to you, blessing him with health in exchange for your precious soul. In the end, you retained your youth long enough to see him die of natural causes, and you haven't aged a day since, have you?" _

_By this time, Larxene was standing close enough so that their clothing touched. Belle flinched as she began to toss one of her throwing knives in her hand, giggling wickedly as if in the background. _

_Continuing, Larxene pulled away from the smaller woman in order to study her expression, "How long has it been now, Marluxia?"_

"_178 years," he replied, his voice ringing deep in Belle's ears._

"_So long, and you only fell in love, what was it, twice?" Belle looked away, closing her eyes as if not seeing her two demons would make the memory fade. "I had thought you were a smart girl, and the first time was understandable, but a second? Tsk, tsk. You should have learned your lesson. Now I know, though, that you're just some crazy inventor's daughter; nothing... __**promising**__."_

"_Daddy's girl," drawled Marluxia._

"_That's right. And what was your punishment for those two, stupid mistakes?"_

_Her lip quivered. She couldn't say it. She felt hot tears run down her cheeks, and made no move to wipe them off. Her eyes were still shut._

_Larxene clicked her tongue angrily, and turned to Belle, walking until their faces were almost touching, "SAY IT, YOU STUPID WHORE!"_

_It was as if the violent tango they had been dancing paused. Larxene and Marluxia waited, and Belle continued to weep silently._

"_Tell us about Gaston first. That should be refreshing," prompted Marluxia._

"…I-I thought he was a selfish, pompous pig for coming on to me the way he did. You know that, you used to tease me for being loved by someone I hated so much…"

"_But then you gradually fell for those broad shoulders and that manly jaw, and you told him everything. About your father, about us… about your REAL age," Larxene continued for her._

_Finally, Belle opened her eyes, tears still streaming over her pretty cheeks. Marluxia sat patiently, only his eyes revealing his inner desire for this conversation to be much shorter._

_They had never really been friends. Maybe companions, but certainly not wanted ones. Larxene had always been this cruel, and Marluxia always this apathetic; but no amount of time could make her memories less painful._

"What do you want from me?" _whispered Belle._

_Larxene gritted her teeth, and began to move forward when Marluxia grabbed her arm. _

"_Marly, what are you doing?"_

"_I think she gets the point. We don't need to force the story of her affair with Beast out of her too, since we all know what happened," Marluxia turned eyes as cold as ice, a mirror of his heart, to Belle, "we were the ones who told her that the punishment for falling in love under contract is having to kill them yourself."_

_Belle's body shuddered and she fell to her knees sobbing. Larxene responded promptly, moving forward the moment Marluxia loosened his grip._

"_I was hoping to have a bit more fun with you before you go, but Marly's right. You've had enough," Larxene bent over Belle, summoning one of her infamous throwing knives with the snap of her fingers, "If you just say the words, it can all be over now. You can forget all of that pain. Just tell me you want to leave this world, and your wish will be granted."_

_Belle stopped sobbing. Her beautiful brown hair fell in front of her face, covering up her expression. She remained completely still for nearly a minute before answering, "Do it."_

_A wild grin tore itself open on Larxene's face as she raised her knife and struck. No one was there to hear Belle's last cry, and no one would find her body in the ally they had been in. What was once Belle became the ashes she would have been had she lived and died naturally, and took flight with the wind; but her soul would never stop wandering the world, wailing for her losses._

"_So, who's our next victim?" asked Larxene, unfazed by the murder. Marluxia glanced down at the old piece of parchment before replying, "His name is Roxas."_

Page Break

"Kairi!"

The redhead looked up from her lap and grinned. Roxas ran up to her as she stood up, and wrapped his arms around her.

"You must think I'm the worst boyfriend ever, YOU"VE BEEN WAITING ALMOST TWO HOURS FOR ME!"

Kairi giggled, trying to get Roxas to set her down, "Not really. Any girl who can get a boy to greet her with a hug like that must have something going for her."

Roxas just laughed in response and let their starry-eyed 17-year-old love carry them where it would.

"So where is this bowling alley you wanted to take me to?" asked Kairi once they were walking.

Roxas cast a glance her way before replying, "It's just outside of town. Sora and I used to go there with our mom and dad when we were younger."

At the sound of his brother's name Kairi made an odd expression, but Roxas took no notice.

"Anyway, I think that you should forget your stupid diet for today and let me order you some extra greasy pizza, a root beer float, and three orders of chili fries. What do you say?" He rolled his eyes down to her, a careless grin on his face.

Kairi giggled again, "You know, the whole point of this diet is so that I look good to the person I care most about."

Roxas chuckled, "And he thinks that you are the thinnest, prettiest, bluest-eyed, most smoking' hot girlfriend that would make any guy jealous."

Kairi looked down and smiled sadly, "Well, not _any _guy."

"What was that, Kai?"

The light in Roxas' life looked up at him and gave him a smile, "Nothing."

… "So anyway, Hayner seems to think that he can juggle, like, five girls at the same time without it biting him in the ass. I told him he was an idiot who was going to run out of girls to date, but that didn't seem to make him…"

"Roxas, how much further is it to this place?" interrupted Kairi.

"Oh, not far. See that street up ahead? It's just across there."

"Well, its taken us long enough to get here. Wait, the signal is flashing! Come on, if we run we can still catch it!"

"No, I don't think so Kairi, I… Wait, Kairi! Kairi, wait up!" Roxas ran to catch up with the small redhead, only slightly irritated at being forced to run.

He was only a few steps away from the street when he noticed that the walking signal was solid red, and had been for a few seconds.

The world slowed down around him as he saw Kairi running in the middle of the crosswalk, and the eight-wheeler that was headed towards her like a dart to a bull's-eye.

He could feel his lungs expand as air filled them without even thinking to breath, and he skidded to a halt on the corner as he shouted, "KAIRI! WATCH OUT!"

Stupid Roxas. Ignorant, moronic, predictable Roxas. Distracted by her name, Kairi stopped, and turned to look at Roxas with a quizzical expression on her face; right up until she was hit by the semi.

Someone screamed, and he wasn't sure, but Roxas thought it might've been himself. He couldn't move. Not when the traffic stopped. Not when people got out of their cars to run over and help. Not when the lady next to him asked him for a cell phone so she could call an ambulance. He was stuck.

In broken, awkward movements, Roxas forced one foot before the other. He had to see. He had to know. She could be okay, right? People survived these things all the time, right? Miracles existed, didn't they?!

He could feel the rhythm of his shoes hitting the pavement as he ran forward, now actively wedging himself through the crowd to get to the front. _She'll be fine. She has to be okay. I know she'll be all right!_

One, lonely tear made its way down Roxas' face. What lay on the ground in front of him was not Kairi. This thing couldn't replace the cheerful, beautiful girl that he loved more than he could ever express with words.

The body that Roxas' brain refused to believe was his girlfriend was maimed and lay in a tangled mess of limbs and gore. Her arms and legs were stacked in unnaturally bent positions, and her hair was matted to the side of her head with blood. He was glad he couldn't see her face because it would have just been too much. _This_ was too much.

There were brown, red, and greenish liquids oozing from what was once her waste where a tire had apparently run her over. Or four, considering it was a semi. Shapeless pieces of gore decorated her clothes, and most of the street around her.

Roxas couldn't take it. This wasn't real. This wasn't happening.

A man in an ambulance uniform walked up to it. 'It' being the thing that lay on the ground, because Roxas' brain refused to recognize it as human. The blonde hadn't noticed, but the crowd had backed up significantly to give the professionals room, leaving him as the only onlooker nearby.

"Excuse me, do you know this girl?"

Roxas didn't answer. A second technician stood next to him, trying to get him to identify the girl or leave, neither of which was happening.

His blue eyes were focused on the first man in uniform, who had knelt down beside it. He reached his hand up towards the head, and Roxas had enough time to think, '_Stop! Anything but that!_' before Kairi's head was rolled over toward him, and lifeless, blue eyes stared up at him. Eyes that had once been familiar, but due to the foggy haze brought on by death there was none of that spark inside him that happens when you recognize a friendly face.

Roxas turned and vomited in the street. The medic that had been questioning him was now trying to help him sit up, or one of the other useless things that people try to do when you're puking, most of which don't help in the least. He wiped the bile off his face with his sleeve, but stayed on all fours, not sure his legs would hold him if he stood up.

_God? Anyone? If you're out there, hear me! Listen to me! FIX THIS! Couldn't it happen to me instead? God, if you can really do anything you want to, you can make this right! PLEASE!_

"_Well, now, that can be arranged."_

Roxas' eyes bolted up to see two figures dressed in long black coats standing in front of him. One, the man who had spoken, had shoulder length pink hair, and one of most stoic faces he had other seen. The other, seemingly the man's companion, was a thin, but tall woman with chin' length blond hair, slicked back to her liking and neatly tucked behind her ears. Of course, Roxas didn't notice all of these things at first, seeing as he was going through shock.

"How? How can you fix this?"

"_Well for one thing, we aren't human. Or at least, not anymore. We used to be; a long, long, time ago. But enough about us," the pink haired man looked past Roxas to Kairi's body._

"_Was she your girlfriend?" asked the woman._

"IS. She IS my girlfriend!"

_The woman gave him an evil grin, "Well, she looks pretty dead to me. Thus, she is your previous girlfriend. As in WAS."_

Roxas stared at the two strangers. Why wasn't anybody saying anything? Couldn't anybody hear the awful things they were saying? Roxas looked around him, but no one seemed to notice anything except for the medic next to him, who was now looking at Roxas as if he'd sprouted a second head.

"_They can't hear us you know. Or see us for that matter. Just you, love."_

Roxas crawled toward the woman, and replied through clenched teeth, "You said you would help. You said you could do something."

The man and woman shared a look that almost seemed practiced before turning back to him.

"_Well of course we can, or else we wouldn't have said so", _Roxas gave the man a confused look.

_"Listen kid, we can fix all of this. We can make it back to how it was before, but we don't do it for free."_

Roxas' eyes widened, "Anything. I'll give you whatever you want. My parents have money; I can get it if you want that." Later, Roxas would wonder what had possessed him to believe that two strangers could bring back his dead girlfriend, let alone why people who had that kind of power would have any need for money. He never found a definite answer, but the feeling they had given him at the time told him that though they certainly weren't good people, they weren't lying to him.

The woman laughed at his response, _"Money. We're immortals that only you can see and you think we'd want money?"_

_"What we want is your soul. Just sign a paper, and you'll enter a contract with our superior, us being your mediators, and as long as you do what we ask you can keep living like you normally would. Almost,"_ explained the man.

_"Of course there are lots of perks, such as eternal youth and all that jazz, but the rules can wait until after you sign it."_

"Okay. Do it. Where do I sign? I'll do whatever you want, just save Kairi."

An identical grin blossomed on the two strangers. The man snapped his fingers, and an old, tattered-looking piece of parchment appeared in front of him. The woman held out a rusty knife following her own snap.

Roxas looked up, confused.

_"You sign in blood. Use the knife."_

Roxas looked back to the parchment and, sure enough, he could see hundreds of names scrawled out on the seemingly endless piece of paper. He took the knife gingerly, and sliced open his palm, hissing at the sting from the wound. He raised the now bloodstained blade to an unmarked space on the paper and scribbled out a signature in his red ink.

Another snap and both disappeared. Roxas looked up to the strangers expectantly.

_"Well, since we are going to be getting to know each other quite well, my name is Marluxia, and this is my partner Larxene," _said the man as he gestured to himself and the woman.

"I don't care! Fix this already! Why hasn't anything happened?"

The woman, Larxene, smirked, but neither said anything. And then Roxas heard it. People from the crowd around them were gasping and shouting out surprised exclamations. Slowly, he turned to see the two medics raising a very alive-looking, though brutally injured, Kairi onto a gurney.

He felt his own gasp escape him to join the many others, and tears were streaming down his face as he tried to get up and wobble over to her, but something he hadn't seen before caught his eye and stopped him. Standing right next to his girlfriend, and holding her hand as the medics got her into the ambulance, was not Roxas. It was Sora.

He looked from his twin, to the girl he had just sold his soul to save, and felt his heart shatter as she looked up at him with a look of such peace, and love, and all the other mushy feelings that Roxas now saw were never really for him.

He had just learned, and one look was all he needed to know, that just because you pour your heart into a relationship, doesn't mean the other person does the same.

Sora and Kairi had been in elementary school classes together, so they had been friends much longer than Roxas had known Kairi. It made sense, really, that it was his brother she had been after, but settled with him as a second choice. The person that she had really been trying to make jealous was Roxas' own twin. Thousands of pieces were finally being pulled into a picture after just that one look. It hurt.

The thought occurred to him sometime later that it was actually the cloaked strangers who planted these ideas into his mind. Not that it mattered. He would visit them once later in his life, though they would never know it, and they seemed happy enough without him.

It certainly wasn't easy to think about, but Roxas wished the best for Kairi and Sora. One more glance back to his girlfriend had told him all he needed to know about just how much his brother meant to her, and how little Roxas had probably ever meant to her. In order to seal up the wound inside him, Roxas filled it with rage. A box that never should have been opened inside of him was, and so many hateful things filled his mind that they blinded him for a bit.

So, in order to dispel all of the rage, he ran. His life-long hometown, Twilight Town, became static scenery as he kept his feet moving, and his blood pumping, until he tore into his house, up to his room, and scribbled out the last thing his family would ever hear from him.

_Dear Dad,_

_I hope you and Leon live happily together. I've always approved, and still do._

_Dear Sora, _

_I hope you and Kairi can grow old together and live the happily ever after I thought_

_I had sold my soul for._

_Don't look for me._

_I love you all, and though it would be a lie to say I'm not hurt and insanely angry,_

_I honestly wish the best for you._

_Know that I'll always think about you and love you,_

_Roxas_

He folded the note up and went to place it in Sora's room, on his desk, and then went back for any munnie he could find, an extra change of clothes, and the picture he kept on his bedside table of him, his mom, Sora, his Dad, and Leon back when he was 'just a friend'. He had to smile despite himself and the desperate situation he was in.

Now, Roxas knew that under ordinary circumstances, running away just because your girlfriend doesn't love you is overreacting and selfish. But it wasn't just that. Hypothetically Sora could turn out gay for his best friend Riku, and Kairi would learn this and come home ten years later to find Roxas a perfectly preserved 17-year-old. It wasn't that he _wanted _to leave his family and friends behind, but he'd just sold his soul to who-knows-what. From what he understood, he was now to be under utter control according these people's bidding for all eternity. At some point he would've had to cut off his relationships, so what difference did it make if he just did it now?

So as Roxas left his cell phone behind, and put everything he'd need into a backpack, he left his house with no regrets. But that box inside him had still been opened, and little did he know it, but that last step out of his house was the first step he took on a life-long road of hell, and there was no getting off until he died.

**OH SHIT! ROXAAAAAAAAAAAAS, IM SOORRRYYYYY!! *crying* FORGIVE MEH! translation: review please. Yes, this is AkuRoku. More updates to come, so don't think this is it... I would hate myself if it was.**


	2. Park Bench Strangers

**Chapter 2!!! I'm proud that I finished it by the end of the week XP. Enjoy!**

102 years later

_"Roxas! Slow down, or you'll hurt yourself! Jesus, you brat; can't you hear me!?"_

_ "Larxene, calm down. Though it would be a shame to lose the superior's favorite, it's unfair of us to ask him to value his life more than we do"._

Roxas ignored his two vexes. Things tended to end better when he ignored them. After 102 years of the same thing, he should know. Instead, he revved the motorcycle beneath him, and sped up from his already deadly speed.

_Larxene grumbled, "Ungrateful little prick". _

Roxas leaned in as he rounded a corner, pressing himself down to hug the bike, and brought his body dangerously close to the asphalt before righting it as the road became strait again. He had been half-heartedly trying to kill himself ever since his first mission, but nerves and too much good luck prevented him from doing so; however the fact that he was in this situation in the first place suggested that it had nothing to do with luck, and more to do with the fact that God -or whoever was in charge up there- was out to get him.

"If you want me to be careful, give me something to fear," Roxas said quietly, knowing they heard him clearly.

_"Ah. That part confuses me. You know the punishment for disobeying, we told you the rules almost immediately after you joined on, but you've only ever tried that method once. Why?"_

Roxas glanced up at the pink-haired man, knowing he was the only person on the road who would be able to see him, and still a bit freaked out by the whole 'I can fly through the air next to you while you drive at ridiculous speeds' thing.

"I thought you knew; just because he didn't kill me doesn't mean I was never punished."

_Larxene's eyes sparkled with interest now, "Oh, don't tell me. The scars on your back, are those from what Xemnas did to you?"_

Roxas didn't look up at them this time, but rather focused hard on ignoring them. Xemnas had done more than just scar him back then, and he had decided it would be a fate much worse than death to repeat the experience.

_"Hmm, well I suppose it does make sense that he went against his own rules and kept you alive. You are the best at what you do that he's managed to acquire in a very long time"._

Once Roxas would have winced at that comment, but he had long since grown a callous towards the idea of being good at his job. He slowed down noticeably, but still had to turn sharply to make his exit.

_"Hollow Bastion. Now this is a town I haven't seen in a looong time! Sure has grown, ne, Marly?"_

_ "Oh yes, it is several times the size of the small town it was when we first came here."_

Roxas made a face and glanced at Marluxia, "How old are you guys again? I don't think you've ever mentioned your age."

_Larxene and Marluxia shared one of their age-old looks that should have taken practice, and probably had judging by the countless centuries they'd spent together. "We don't remember our exact age, but you are our 202__nd__ charge, and each of those had a life with us ranging from less than a year, to over 300, the average being about 42. You do the math". Marluxia gave Roxas a look much like one a hawk would give a rodent, but he was too accustomed to it to notice._

Roxas turned, and continued to walk down the arterial road in the town. There were cars parked all over the shoulders and in every other crevice a car could fit, but too many people walked for a car to have room to drive freely, so none did.

For the most part, Larxene and Marluxia left Roxas to do as he pleased. He had been more obedient than any other charge by a long shot, and ever since his confrontation with Xemnas after he refused a mission, the superior had told them he had permission to do missions unaccompanied by them. Still, those with endless life to live also have increased problems with boredom; and like today, they sometimes followed Roxas on his missions anyway simply because they had nothing better to do.

Roxas took a left off the main road, onto a darker alley. Then a right onto another street, and another left into a dark corridor. He turned to walk up some steps leading to a door on his right, which looked like the entrance to a small townhouse. He gripped the doorknob and turned it, gently shoving the door open.

Inside a family sat at a small table. A lamp in the corner cast an eerie yellow glow on the room, causing the shadows on their faces to make them look aged and worn out; or maybe Roxas was just projecting.

They looked up, startled by the intruder, but calmed when they realized it was just a boy who was most likely harmless. Roxas noticed that there was a man and his wife, a boy, and a little girl. Neither of the kids was older than ten, but Roxas guessed the boy was older than the girl by at least a year or two.

The man walked towards Roxas, "May we help you, boy?" he asked. Judging by his tone and stature, Roxas recognized that the man was probably generous and kind, and that the family would be inclined share their meal with him if he asked, despite their obvious poverty.

"I apologize for what I'm about to do, and I don't ask you to forgive me because I can't forgive myself. I'm sorry."

The man gave him a confused look until Roxas made a gesture that summoned his key blade, a foreign weapon to the man but menacing none the less.

"W-Who are you!?" he asked, trying to crawl back to the table to protect his now trembling family.

"A servant of the devil," replied Roxas quietly. He raised his blade and struck, leaving none alive in the house.

Roxas walked out into the alley and shut the door behind him after he had finished. He paused only briefly as he noticed Marluxia and Larxene leaning against the opposite wall, waiting for him with expectant smiles on their faces. He continued silently, as if he hadn't seen them, and hung his head in a practiced way that caused his bangs to cover his eyes.

He made his way inconspicuously back to his motorcycle, knowing that no one would find bodies, and no one would care that the family had gone missing. That is what his job was. Xemnas assigned him a person, or group of people, who had been cut off from society; people who wouldn't be missed if they disappeared. It was these people that he went and killed with his key blade, all for the sake of collecting hearts. He had no idea how this benefited any of them, but Xemnas was the closest thing to evil he had found in his 119 years of life, and he knew that evil people did a lot of things without reason.

Roxas shared a small apartment with his two supervisors. It wasn't really sharing, though, because they never used their own rooms. Roxas didn't know where they went at night, but he had a theory that they were distantly related to vampires and prowled on the innocent under cover of darkness. Just kidding. Anyway, they apparently didn't need as much sleep as humans, so while Roxas got some shut eye, they went out into the world to do what only God will ever know.

They had moved around a lot for the first several years of Roxas' contract. No matter where they went, or whose house they stayed at, all three would eventually get bored; or else Roxas would get older, and the neighbors would begin to ask him for the secret to his resilience against ageing.

Their current residence was a fairly new one. Traverse Town was nice; not as big as Hollow Bastion, but big enough so that he wasn't well known by all the townsfolk.

Roxas climbed the stairs to his apartment, Marluxia and Larxene having already left him, and dug his keys out of his pocket. A little old woman who lived across the hallway from him smiled as he walked past her to his door. He smiled back, and was genuinely glad to have someone to smile at him like a decent human being should. Even if he didn't deserve it.

"Roxas, honey, how are you? Have you been eating enough? Honestly, you look like a sack of bones!" she exclaimed. Roxas' smile widened. Her name was Mrs. Lockheart, and she was one of those old people that bugs you about everything until you begin to expect it. In a good way, of course.

"I'm fine, thanks. Are you going to take Squall for a walk now?"

"Why, yes. But it's getting a bit chilly out, and I fear my old bones require shorter walks now that winter's on its way."

At the mention of his name, Squall had begun to growl. Being the small spit of an animal he was, one of those fluffy white things that only really counts as a fraction of a dog, his growl was quite pitiful. Roxas let his eyes roll down to where the dog stood, rightly protecting its master, in front of Mrs. Lockheart. He hated the dog, but the dog hated him too so they were even. After finishing her comment about the weather, Mrs. Lockheart noticed her dog growling at Roxas.

"Squall! Roxas, I'm so sorry. He normally loves people; I just don't know why he does this only to you…" She made a ridiculous gesture, almost like she was swatting at the leash, as she chirped, "Stop that! Bad dog!"

Roxas had a hunch why the dog hated him, and was okay with it. They do say animals are more perceptive to dangers than people.

He said goodbye to Mrs. Lockheart who, for the thousandth time, told him 'Mrs. Lockheart' felt old and to call her Tifa. He didn't understand the importance of what name he called her, and simply shook his head as he turned to unlock his door, all the while contemplating how Squall was an idiotic name for a dog, even if he did like the old lady.

Roxas lay quietly on his bed. The groan of the ceiling fan in his room was the only noise. He didn't really enjoy listening to music, but he had a CD in his player, and headphones in his ears, despite his dislike of the noise. He turned a page of his book, _A Walk in the Park- Until Zombies Attack!_, to find the end of his chapter. Roxas sighed heavily and marked his place, setting the novel down on the table by his bed.

Yawning and stretching his arms over his head, Roxas turned to look out his window and see that the sun was starting to set. Suddenly, almost fatefully, he was compelled to go for a walk. He hopped off his bed, and grabbed a sweatshirt on his way out, making sure to lock the door behind him.

Most people had gone inside to eat dinner, or whatever families did in the evening these days, as Roxas began to walk through town. He took a couple of turns until he ended up beyond any existing nightlife, and took a turn that lead up a hill. He kept walking, not caring that the buildings were losing height as well as becoming more scattered, until he reached the top. There, conveniently placed on the hill, was a large willow tree with a nice wooden bench under its cover.

Finally, he had caught a break. Roxas walked up and sat down with a satisfied smile on his face, knowing that he was lucky to find a place with such a great view; one that was unoccupied none the less.

There's something therapeutic about sunsets. A sunset is one of those few things that, when watching it, one may be inclined to start thinking mushy thoughts and getting all deep. It just made Roxas feel depressed; but he was okay with that. He embraced his depression unlike anything else he had embraced before. He watched the night sky light up with fire, and wished he could burn with the day.

"Too bad I'm a coward, and won't make that wish come true…" grumbled Roxas to himself.

"If you keep talking to yourself like that, I might have to leave".

"AH!" shrieked Roxas. He shoved himself as far as he could to the opposite side of the bench. _When did this kid get here!?_ He thought to himself.

"Well, no offense, but if you were one of those mentally ill bums, I'd be a bit intimidated of sitting next to you".

Roxas opened his mouth, failed to speak, shut it, opened again, and shook his head with frustration. Who the hell was this redhead? Just sitting down next to people and not saying anything first… What the hell!?

"Hey, I asked you if it was alright to sit here, and you didn't respond. No answer at all is always defaulted to, 'sure Axel, do whatever you want!'". The redhead was frowning, and Roxas gave him the most perplexed look he had given someone in a long time. Then, of all things, he started to laugh.

"Umm, excuse me? I'm sorry if I offended you by calling you a bum… umm, are you okay?"

Roxas ignored the stranger as tears began to stream down his face. He was having one of those uncontrollable giggle fits that your body forces out of you after not laughing for too long. He was only about 102 years too long.

"Geeze, you're a strange guy aren't you?" asked the blonde, running his hand through his hair as he tried to take deep breaths.

The ginger gave him a skeptical look, "You start talking to yourself, then laugh when I compare you to the mentally ill, and you say _I'M_ the strange one?" The redhead smiled, "honestly. But anyway, sorry to intrude on your meditation there. You were so deep in thought I guess you didn't notice me sit down. What's your name?"

For the first time since he had signed his name on that damned contract, Roxas gave a sincere, boyish smile. "I'm Roxas, you?"

The redhead smirked and leaned back against the bench, "Axel. The one and only ginger with sex appeal, or so they tell me". Axel waggled his eyebrows, and Roxas rolled his eyes playfully. It was like a screen had been lifted that had covered him for so many years, he had forgotten it was there.

"Ahhhhhhh!" Roxas sighed, stretching his arms above his head. "This is what I've needed".

"What exactly is that, Roxas?"

"A vacation. A god damned vacation".

Axel scratched his head, eying the sunset that was beginning to fade as night took over. "If you don't mind me asking, a vacation from what? There's no way you're older than me, and I'm eighteen, so do you work part-time or something? What school do you go to anyway?"

Roxas looked out at the sunset as well, and smiled sadly as he replied, "Actually, I'm a lot older than I look. And my job is a 24 hour thing, so it gets… tiring," Roxas let his words sink in. He had never talked to anyone this much about anything, let alone his job. Not since he was recruited. The blonde chuckled, but it was more sad than happy, "Actually, I don't think I've ever had a vacation".

Axel glanced at the smaller blonde. He was kidding, right? Judging from the way he talked, he could pass for 16 or 17, but he looked so much like jailbait that Axel couldn't think of him as much older. He raised an eyebrow at the guy sitting next to him on the bench. "Well then, Roxas, just how old are you?"

Roxas smirked, "119 years."

Axel chuckled and looked away, "funny kid, real funny. But you seriously look like jailbait, how old are you?"

His blue eyes, which had just been bright, faded back to their usual dull grey. He sighed and looked up at the redhead, trying to get his eyes to convey the seriousness he felt. Axel swallowed, not sure this guy was entirely well after all.

"Axel, I've never told anyone my story. After the life I've lived I'm in need of one hell of a confession, but I'm not religious or anything. So do you think you could do that for me? I know we just met, but I need someone to listen to me just once".

Axel stared wordlessly. What the hell was this guy talking about? He shrugged his shoulders, pretending not to think anything strange of the request, and replied, "Sure kid, anything you say".

**Ah yes. They meet. And I kind of left it at a cliffhanger. Sorry if you don't like that stuff :)... Review plz.**


	3. Cloud 9

**HAPPY THANKSGIVING! This is sort of a filler chapter... but hey, what can you do? Its basically just setting up for the rest of the story, in which there will be less random wandering and more plot. I have a plot, believe me. I want to update ASAP, but cosplay is demanding and I'm trying to finish the ones I'm working on before Christmas, so updates may be very random. Thanks for reading!!!**

At first, Axel had believed the kid was messed up in the head. You know, the kind that will run away and jump off a building if you don't give them the response they're looking for. He still wasn't sure about the smaller boy's sanity, but once the blond had started speaking; Axel had become consumed with interest. He still didn't believe two words and shit about what Roxas was saying, but he was a damned good story teller, so the redhead didn't mind.

"Hold up, so you're saying your girlfriend died, you sold your soul to bring her back, and then she ran off with your brother?" he asked with disbelief. "That's low," he mumbled, pointing out what Roxas had already thought was obvious.

Roxas shrugged his shoulders indifferently. It had happened so long ago that he hardly felt it mattered. Even if he did hold a bitch of a grudge for being stabbed in the back like he was, being angry had become more like a method of fueling some form, any form, of emotion in himself. It was like a routine check-up that told him he was still human, and could still feel pain. "I guess so. Larxene, the blonde woman I mentioned, told me a couple years later that they had gotten married." He sipped on a juice box that Axel had handed him from his backpack. There had been a brief quarrel over whether or not Red was actually 18 if he still carried juice boxes around with him, but Axel simply pointed out the fact that Roxas had already taken one and begun to sip.

"Wow. That's pretty awful of her. I mean, assuming you were an emotional wreck for a few years after all of this happened, she kind of just rubbed salt in the wound. I would hate to live with a bitch like that".

Roxas eyed his juice box, "Oh, it's not so bad. These days she and Marluxia leave me alone enough that I don't mind anymore". The blonde smirked, and reached into his pocket. The redhead raised an eyebrow, but said nothing as Roxas pulled out a simple, silver cell phone and flipped it open. "Besides, I wouldn't put it past her to lie," Roxas looked up at Axel, "I knew my brother better than anyone else, and I was pretty dead ass sure he was gay for his best friend Riku".

Axel sputtered as he sipped his juice, trying not to laugh enough for it to come out his nose. That would have just been sad; the innocent stranger loosing face in front of the clinically insane, or at least that was how Axel saw it.

"I see… So, what did you do after that? You say it's been 102 years since all of that happened, and then what?"

Roxas closed his phone and slid it back into his pocket. "It's getting pretty late, and I probably have to work tomorrow". Roxas was lying, because he knew both that he definitely would have to work the next day, and that it wouldn't start until late afternoon or evening. Even though he didn't need, or want, to return to his shabby apartment and sleep, he had said too much already. Roxas wasn't worried about becoming personally attached to Axel for any reason other than the guilt he would feel if the redhead ended up getting killed over all this. But that alone would suck _a lot_.

The blond stood, and Axel gave him a confused look. "It was nice meeting you, and thanks for listening to me, but I should probably get going".

The redhead was now frowning, "That's it? No rest of the story for the poor old stranger?"

Roxas gave him a condescending smile, which only further confused the redhead. "I'm glad you liked the story, but I know that you don't believe it anyway, so who cares if we never see each other again? You'll forget me just like all of my friends and family did, and then you'll grow old and die while I watch from the shadows, still preserved in my 17-year-old form".

Axel felt a pang of guilt in his chest, but didn't know what he'd done to deserve it. "Does that mean you'll forget about me in a few days?" he asked after a few moments of contemplation.

Roxas smiled wider and shook his head, "Not a chance. All of my memories are precious to me, even the ones of people who most would consider insignificant in my life. Everyone deserves to be remembered for something."

Axel didn't know what to say. Roxas seemed so closed off, that the redhead felt it hard to get any answers out of him. "So why don't you make them worth remembering?" the redhead mumbled.

Roxas gave him a quizzical look, "You mean friends?" Axel nodded, and Roxas sighed. It seemed he would have to give some sort of explanation to get the redhead off his back. "I don't deserve friends. Like I said before, I probably don't deserve having you to listen to me either," the blond shrugged, "It's just the way I've decided to live my life".

Axel stared. How could this guy live like he did? 102 years of life as a 17 year old, and the only people he had to talk to were a pink-haired narcissist and a sadist bitch. Then again, none of that was real, so he shouldn't really care about the personal life of this stranger, but he did anyway.

"Thanks again, but I'm going. Bye". Roxas turned to leave, and was stopped by a hand grabbing his arm. He turned wide eyes up to Axel, who was looking at him with mildly confused concern.

"Umm," Axel wasn't sure what to say. This poor kid seemed like a drug addict, and he felt like God had handed him the job of nursing the blond back to health. He couldn't just stand by like some apathetic jerk. His parents had raised him better than that. "I liked your story," he said finally, drawing a look from Roxas that was dripping with _'you are an idiot'_. Axel let go of the kid's arm and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "I mean, if you don't mind, come here again tomorrow at the same time," he had been staring at his feet as he said this, but shifted his eyes to look into Roxas' blue ones, "I'd really like to hear more".

Roxas didn't answer. He wasn't sure what to say, seeing as it had been so long since anyone had bothered reach out to him, even when it was convenient. And here was Axel, an arrogant moron he had only met an hour or two earlier, who was going out of his way to get to know Roxas. The blond flushed pink.

Axel smiled, knowing he had hooked the fish. "I'll even bring juice boxes again".

Roxas swallowed. What the hell was this? He was an introvert, an outcast. HE HAD JUST BEEN MISTAKEN FOR A SICK HOBO BY THIS GUY! And he nodded. Despite all of the reasons not to, he agreed to meet Axel there the following evening.

The redhead grinned. His green eyes glowed with amusement over this win and, if he didn't have a reputation to uphold, he would have done some sort of victory dance. _'Oh yeah, definitely a nice catch'_ he thought to himself. Later that night he would come to wonder what the hell had caused his brain to revert to all the fishing analogies.

ImaPageBreakguesswhatIdo

Roxas stood in front of his door, facing his room, and stared at his bed. He kept replaying his evening with Axel over in his head, and couldn't comprehend what had driven him to agree to meet Red again. Roxas smiled to himself. He had even given Axel a nickname, albeit not a very creative one, and not that he would ever actually call him Red to his face.

The blonde hung up his sweatshirt on a coat rack, and kicked off his sneakers. He took a couple of steps into his room, scratching his head in frustration, but stopped before his bed when he looked down and spotted his old CD player in the corner, buried under a pile of clothes he never wore.

He felt as though he had just run into an ex girlfriend at a coffee shop he frequented. _'What the hell'_, he thought, and walked over to pick it up.

Throwing himself on his bed, Roxas slid the headphones into place and pressed play.

_Hearts like violence_

_Break the silence_

_Come crashing in-_

_Into my little world_

_Painful to me,_

_Pierce right through me,_

_Can't you understand?_

_Oh, my little girl_

"…" Roxas stared at the ceiling, and frowned.

_All I ever wanted_

_All I ever needed_

_Is here in my arms_

_Words are very_

_Unnecessary_

_They can only do- *beep*_

Roxas jabbed at the stop button and threw his walkman at his door, creating a very satisfying thud. Groaning, he rolled over on his bed and shut his eyes. _'Why did I think that would be a good Idea?'_ he thought to himself. It just so happened that the CD In his walkman had been borrowed from Kairi, and happened to make its way into the mess of everything else he had taken with him when he left home. Roxas turned and looked over his shoulder at the CD player, miraculously still intact. The blonde cursed under his breath and shifted lower on his bed so that he could get under the covers. _'Fuck music' he thought._ However as he drifted off into sleep, a smirk decorated his face.

ImapagebreakguesswhatIdo

"_ROXAS!"_

The small blonde rolled over on his bed, "five more minutes Mom."

"_Dammit, boy, GET UP!"_

"_Roxas, I think it would be in your best interest to get up before I unleash her on you, she's in quite a foul mood today."_

Roxas cracked one blue eye and groaned. He'd been having such a nice dream, and the woman standing in his room was nothing close to motherly. "What time is it?"

"_It's about ten in the morning," Roxas raised an eyebrow, lazily, "and I know Larxene's usually in some state of consciousness between a food-coma and a hangover around this time, but we actually didn't go drinking last night and judging from your lack of quickness to catch on, you have yet to learn just how much of a morning person Larxene can be. The sarcasm was intended."_

Roxas slid his feet over the edge of his bed and sat up, trying to stifle a yawn. "Normally being a morning person implies looking fresh in the morning, and happy to start the day," the smaller blonde made eye contact with the woman, "but I've got to say, you've never been a fresh sight for me to see, and you most certainly don't convey such pleasant feelings as happiness."

Larxene shrieked and lunged for the kill, but was stopped by Marluxia's hand. _"Roxas, I would highly recommend that you refrain from tempting her, even if you think my use of sarcasm makes it too easy to pass on, because the usual outcome when I let her do what she wants has you ending up in the hospital. And we'd have to move. Again." _

The boy rolled his eyes and stood up, passing them as he left his room, "Sure guys, I'll make you breakfast".

ImapagebreakguesswhatIdo

By the time Roxas had both of his contractors fed, out the door, and had cleaned the kitchen, it was noon. Normally he didn't get his missions until four or five in the evening, so he had plenty of time to kill. Problem was, what does a person who's been living for near 120 years have to do that they aren't already sick of from countless other days of boredom?

Roxas pulled his arms through the sleeves of his leather jacket. It was one of the few things he owned that was fairly new, and it had almost instantly become his favorite jacket. He followed through the motions of his usual routine of walking out the door and turning to lock it with the key from his back pocket.

"Good afternoon boy, you sure are going out earlier than usual." Roxas jumped and span around, but grinned when he saw it was only Mrs. Lockheart. Squall, of course, was right by her side and yapping like all small dogs are programmed to do.

"Good afternoon Mrs. Lockheart!" Roxas beamed, and he meant it. It had been a good morning so far, despite his rude awakening by Marluxia's pet slut. His smile faltered though, when the old woman didn't answer him. "Umm, Mrs. Lockheart? Are you alright?" Her coal-black hair was hung neatly over one shoulder, but there were strands of grey in it that Roxas hadn't noticed before. He looked up at her eyes, and saw the clear sparkle of life that should have been there, but was now muddy and clouded in her brown eyes due to age. Her face, even though he could estimate what she must have looked like when she was younger, was reduced to merely its original shape and distorted her features with wrinkles. So this was what it meant to grow old.

Blinking, Roxas brought himself back to the present and caught Mrs. Lockheart giving him a curious look. "Roxas, you seem happy today. Good for you!" The older woman reached out and patted his shoulder before turning and scuttling out the door, waving on her way out.

ImapagebreakguesswhatIdo

Roxas looked up to read the sign above the place he was standing in front of. "Cloud 9 Live Music and Drinks!" He thought 'Cloud 9' was an odd name for a venue, but who was he to judge? Nudging the door, the boy took his first steps into the place. It was dimly lit, and practically unoccupied except for the bartender and a guy in the corner playing an instrument.

A bell on the door rang, and the bartender looked up, revealing sandy blonde hair and a five o'clock shadow ringing his chin. "Greetings there, you must be looking for Cloud. Sorry to tell you this, but he doesn't start work until 6 tonight."

Roxas frowned, "Cloud? Does he own this place?"

The older man chuckled and set down the cloth he had been using to wipe the counter. In one fluid movement, he swung himself over it, leaving nothing but space and empty tables between him and Roxas. "I guess not then, and no. I'm the owner; I just gave this place the name to annoy the poor boy. He'll take over for me some day, but the condition in my will is that he can't sell the place, and he can't change the name." The man grinned as he walked forward and stuck out his hand, "The name's Cid. I'm Cloud's uncle." Roxas grabbed the hand and shook it, indicating his pleasure to meet the stranger.

"Oi, Cid! Who's the kid?"

Roxas grumbled at being called a kid, but answered anyway, "My name's Roxas. I just came by to hear what kind of music you guys play, but apparently I came at the wrong time…"

The older man gripped Roxas' shoulder and the boy looked up to notice he had been chewing on a toothpick. "Dem, what do you say we invite this kid back tonight to hear your set? I have a feeling he'd fit right in with the scene."

The guy who was in the corner turned and revealed himself to have been playing a guitar. "I dunno Cid. My sets always attract a different crowd then when I'm just playing with the band, and I don't want to feel responsible if something spooks the little guy."

Cid frowned. "Be nice, Demyx. It would be good to have some new people in your audience," the man turned down to Roxas, "The show starts at ten. Come early if you want somewhere to sit because it fills up fast."

Roxas nodded, and looked back to Demyx, "Is that what you're going to be playing tonight?"

The musician looked up and smirked, "You'll find out tonight."

Roxas thanked the two for the invitation and said he'd think about it. He didn't know whether or not he'd actually go, but maybe he'd tell Axel to go for him or something. He hoped the guy wouldn't be playing a guitar that evening. Roxas didn't care too much for electric instruments, or any of their music, but hey; this was more adventurous than he'd been in years, why spoil it?

The boy had killed a few hours that day in the library, then looking up local music stores, and deciding instead to go to the lounge he'd found. Ever since he tried to listen to his old walkman, he had become impulsively determined to find something to his liking. His new outlook pertained to the unwritten law that, with all of the varieties of music out there, he should be able to find at least one band he liked, right?

So, pulling out his phone to check the time, Roxas learned it was four thirty, and decided to head back to his apartment so he could take his bike when he got his mission.

The sun was beginning to set again by the time he got back to his apartment from his mission. The street lights were beginning to turn on, and Roxas smirked to himself as he locked his door behind him as he departed anew. He had been waiting to see the redhead stranger all day, and, unlike most other main characters in a story, he knew exactly what to say when he walked up the hill, and sat down on the bench next to Red.

**REVIEW PLEASE! TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!?! Anyway, I'd first like to apologize for using a song. Normally I abhor when there are song lyrics in fanfiction, but I comitted the crime. I'm sorry :'(. The song, btw, was Enjoy the Silence. I was listening to the version by Lacuna Coil, but I know the original is by some guy. The second thing I'm really sorry for is giving such a lame name to the place where I plan to introduce characters. I literally stared at my computer screen for 10 minutes before that popped into my head and, despite how lame it is, I used it thanks to lack of ingenuity. WHERE ARE MY MUSES?? Tell me what you think plz!**


	4. Friends

**Happy holidays! I hope everyone is having as great a time off as I am. As for this chapter, its... okay I feel like an emo chick writing poetry whenever I update to be honest, but I also love every minute of it. Also, because I hate my sap writing and would like some help making this more readable, I'm looking for a beta reader!? If anyone's interested, and thinks they're up to it, feel free to PM me! And to the rest of you, enjoy the chapter. Please Review!**

"Hey," Axel looked up to see his new favorite blonde sitting down on the bench.

"Hey yourself," he replied.

The two sat in silence for a few minutes, sipping a couple of juice boxes Axel had brought them.

"I don't remember much of the first decade or so."

Axel looked over at Roxas. The small blonde's blue eyes glistened as he looked into the sunset. The red head knew how to do this much, so he sat and listened quietly.

"It's kind of scary now that I think back on it, losing my memory of ten whole years. I mean, I would sometimes get flashbacks of faces I'd seen, or places we'd been to, but only fragments. I was never able to really remember anything in context…

But I know that it was during that time that they taught me how to summon my key blade. They trained me to use it, and told me about our boss, Xemnas. He's like God in our world. Marluxia and Larxene used to say it was his power that brought us into this world, and it would be his power that would take us out of it. I don't believe them. Probably because he's more like the devil than any God I've heard of.

Once I started retaining memories, they told me I'd gotten over my rookie stretch and developed a callous to the trauma that being one of us can put on your body. At first I had thought it had been some sort of metaphysical-supernatural bullshit that caused that, but only because I was naïve. Now I think it was more like physical and mental trauma. Like how people who were abused as kids, the really bad ones, can't remember parts of their childhood.

The first memory I have after signing my contract is of the sea. The second ten years were rough, and sometimes I wonder how I didn't lose my mind doing the things they made me do; but the sea was nice. As horrible as our job was, Marluxia and Larxene made sure that we always lived in comfort. And those next ten years of my life were spent up and down the coast of this continent."

Roxas glanced at Axel, who was waiting patiently. "If you have any questions, go ahead and ask. Just remember that I don't have to answer any of them."

Axel nodded, "What is your job, anyway? What did they make you do that was so awful?"

Roxas' expression became grim, "Sorry, I can't answer that."

Axel frowned, "Won't. You _won't_ answer that."

Roxas stared at him blankly, "Okay, I won't answer that."

Axel sighed, "I wish you would just tell me. It's like you said, I don't believe any of this anyway so what harm is there? Your higher ups can't punish you for telling a story."

The blonde looked away and watched the sunset again, "Axel, it's not about getting in trouble. There are some memories I have that… well, they're painful to talk about. And no offense, but I just don't know you well enough to risk a mental, and probably very permanent, breakdown in favor of satisfying your curiosity."

Axel's eyes widened, he mumbled an apology but didn't imagine Roxas had heard it.

The blonde continued, "It was in those first ten years that I met Saix.

'Roxas, we're going to introduce you to one of our best friends today' is what they had told me. Of course, I hadn't wanted anything to do with whoever it was. Not because they were cruel or mean, or because I was afraid. Back then my contractors were little more than annoying. The only reason I hadn't wanted to meet the guy was because I was too busy wallowing in my own hate to want to meet anybody.

But they took me to meet him, and he hated me from the beginning. Now, I hadn't known this back then, but all nobodies, people who work under Xemnas as contractors, follow orders from two people, not one. The first and only legitimate one being the Superior himself. The second would be Saix, whose power is derived from his position as Xemnas' lapdog.

I don't know why Saix hated me in the beginning. Later on he had reasons, but my best theory is that he went to some crazy fortune teller who told him about me and what I'd do to his position as the Superior's favorite. But one thing know for sure is that he's in all of my really vivid memories from the beginning.

Shortly after they had introduced us, Marluxia and Larxene ran off to do whatever it is they do. I have a hunch that he had actually asked to meet me. Either way, once they had gone he beat me. And beat me some more. And then finished me off with more beating. I was new, and didn't know how to defend myself worth a damn back then, but being immortal means you can take a hell of a lot of damage and never die. Because the one way to kill one of us isn't anything physical… or at least not with hands, and Saix thought I was too pathetic to kill back then.

He broke most of the bones in my body, and made me bleed until I was begging him to stop. I think most of what he did could be considered torture, but we don't get the right to uphold mortal laws, because we break most of them doing what we're supposed to do.

After that meeting, which was probably the worst, I couldn't complete missions for a month. Xemnas wasn't pleased, which was Saix' goal from the beginning, so I had to work double when I finally healed. I've seen Saix three times since then, only one of which I left in better condition than he was. He was my first real fear since I gained immortality. There have been too many nights where I would lie in my bed and cry because I could feel the memory of him beating me that first day."

Roxas stared at his feet for several minutes. The sun had set already, and they now sat under a street light that cast an eerie yellow glow on the two of them. Axel wasn't sure what to say. Sure, he had asked to listen, but it was deeper shit than he had thought it would be, and what made it worse was Roxas had told him all of this as if he had been asked to read a novel he found boring. Child abuse was definitely not Axel's forte, and neither was comforting people he barely knew.

Then, Roxas surprised him. The blonde shook as tears began to glide down his cheeks. He hung his head down, and grabbed fistfuls of his blonde hair in frustration, sobbing even harder. The way the streetlight hit his frame, and drastically emphasized some of the shadows on his body and made his skin appear sunken in, he looked like he had gone mad. Axel didn't think so, but he would have believed it.

Roxas sucked in a breath of air, and gasped. Why was he crying? He hadn't cried over anything in years, so why now? Axel was sitting next to him, being a good guy and listening to a stranger's depressing baggage, and all he could do was break down and cry?

What startled him was when Axel reached over and placed a warm hand on his back. Roxas jumped, and looked up at Axel with eyes that were so scared they almost shot fear into the redhead himself. Because no one had ever been there for Roxas before, not when he _really_ needed it.

Roxas responded by throwing himself into Axel's lap, wrapping slender arms around his narrow waste, and cried into his shirt. Axel did the only thing someone can do in that situation. He comforted the small blonde, wrapping a secure arm around his back, and stroking his hair with his other hand. Axel smirked to himself when he realized that this was what his mother had done for him when he was little and got scared, as cliché as it sounded. And it made him feel good. Like he was meant to be there, protecting Roxas from whatever he was afraid of.

That night Roxas cried more than he had ever cried in his life. He cried for what happened with Kairi, he cried because he missed his family, he cried because he'd never age past 17, and he cried because he finally had someone to protect him when he was vulnerable.

xxx

Axel looked up at the stars. How the hell had he gotten himself into this? Roxas was curled up on his lap, fitting notably snugly under his arms with his head resting on Axel's chest, and the redhead suspected the smaller blonde to be asleep. He didn't have anywhere to be, and didn't mind sitting there with his new favorite blonde, but what would happen when he woke up?

Axel played over a mental video of the past hour or so he had spent with Roxas. It was very possible that Roxas had had some very real problems growing up, and this was his way of coping. Somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered if there had been other public bench strangers Roxas had told this story to. And somewhere deeper, inner Axel growled with jealousy. He could take care of this kid just find without the help of any other public bench strangers.

"Axel?"

The redhead jumped, surprised that the blonde was awake, "Yeah, kid?"

Roxas shifted his weight so that he could turn to face Axel. Placing his hands on the larger boy's thighs, he propped himself up so that his face was eye level with Axel's. What he didn't notice was that their faces were about three inches apart, and what Axel hadn't noticed until this moment was that Roxas was actually a very attractive guy. Not in the sense that he was notably good looking, so much as Axel suddenly realized he had the hots for a kid he had just met, who had some _serious_ issues. There had to be something illegal about that. He would have used the fact that he was 18, and therefore sex was illegal, but damn the system and its 'age of consent' bullshit. Axel needed a reason not to be turned on by a pair of the bluest eyes he'd ever seen, and the silky blonde hair that stuck up in ways that usually only kids leave the house with, and the fact that his soft, pink lips were only minuscule inches from Axel's. Not to mention he was one of the most vulnerable people Axel had ever met. Don't blame him if he later agreed that this thought process classified him as no better than a perfectly legal pedophile.

"Axel? What's wrong?" Roxas tilted his head, and Axel had to blink several times before he could think of an intelligent response.

"Umm, nothing at all. What did you say?"

Roxas blushed and looked down, "I went to a place called Cloud 9 today. They invited me to go there for a music show later tonight, but I don't want to go alone… so I wanted to know if you'd go?"

Axel inhaled and exhaled as he thought before giving Roxas his best grin and replying, "Sure, I'd love to. What time is it?"

Roxas looked back at him and gave him a familiar boyish grin, "They said it starts at ten."

Axel pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and flipped it open. "But it's only eight," he mumbled, mostly to himself.

The blonde's smile twitched at the edges, and faltered a bit. Axel chuckled, "Don't worry; we can grab something to eat on the way there. I'll buy."

"You don't have to," Roxas whispered, but his voice was lying. He didn't know what he'd do with himself if Axel left, and he didn't want to be alone.

Axel smirked, "Hey, we're friends right? It's cool."

Roxas didn't look at Axel but smiled. They were friends. He could use one of those.

xxx

As they began to walk down the hill and back into town, Axel occasionally let himself glance over at the smaller blonde. He wasn't sure, but it seemed like with every step they took, the more Roxas retracted his vulnerable boyishness, and turned into the jaded teenager Axel had met him as.

Somewhere in his mind he contemplated the possibility of the kid being bipolar, but shook it off. "_He probably just needs someone to talk to"_, Axel thought, "_and I think I can be that someone. At least for a little longer."_

**I can't wait for your reactions to the next few chapters, because dude: plot twists. I feel like the diabolical mastermind of something ingenious! It probably doesn't seem quite that way right now, but I beg you, KEEP READING. And REVIEW PUH-LEASE! KTHNXBI ^_^**


	5. Emergency

**When I originally wrote this chapter, I had finished it in a hurry and there were lots of grammar errors and what-not. I'm working on chapter...7? 8? I'm not sure which... but I ended up going back and re-reading this, and this is the final product after my loose editing... I think I got rid of all the REALLY bad errors, but some may remain... OH WELL XD, I'll fix them later. Any-who back to writing the new chapter... Reviews PLZ!**

Roxas didn't eat out much, so it had seemed a wise decision to let Axel choose where they would eat. They ended up in a Taco Time down the street from Cloud 9, eating burritos and mexifries. He was so busy pondering his food as he ate it, that he didn't notice the redhead stop consuming his own food to watch him.

"Why do you do that?" Roxas jumped in his seat, and looked up at Axel.

"Do what?"

Axel groaned, running a hand through his hair. "Five minutes ago you were all jolly and well, and now you're visually undressing each and every mexifry as if you were afraid it could poison you!"

Roxas merely blinked, "I don't think they are going to poison me. And before was… different. If I acted like that everywhere I went, I wouldn't have survived this long."

Axel gave the kid an exasperated look, which Roxas pointedly ignored and continued eating. It wasn't that the redhead didn't like this version of Roxas; so much as he thought this Roxas was a lot more confusing. He took a very angry bite out of his burrito, and continued talking, "I think the other you would be more likely to enjoy the show."

Roxas shrugged, "No, I'm always like this when I listen to music. That's so I can… So I can… Axel! No wonder I hate music!"

Axel frowned. If the blonde hated music, why were they going to see a band play later? "What do you mean? Are you saying you're split personality is the reason you didn't like music before? And why are we going to a venue to hear a band if you aren't going to like them? We could just see a movie ya know."

"First of all, I don't have a split personality. It's a conscious choice of behavioral differences depending on what the circumstances at hand call for. As for the music, I've decided I want to find some music I like. We can see a movie some other time if you want, but that would be a lot like a date."

Axel choked on his drink.

"D-Date!? What the hell got you talking about dating all of a sudden?!"

Roxas ignored him. He didn't really have an answer, so he didn't reply. The redhead went over it in his head. If a movie with Roxas was like a date, then wasn't going to a show together a date? Was this the kid's way of trying to get confess his feelings?

"Don't over think it," Roxas said after a minute of Axel's inner feuding, "I just meant to say it would be _like _a date. As in lots of couples like to do that stuff."

Axel gave him an exasperated look, "Well friends can do that stuff too. Why the need to think of it specifically as date-like?"

Roxas smirked, "I wanted to see your reaction to the thought of dating me." Inner Axel had to take a step back and re-assess the situation. First, Roxas would be a nervous wreck. Then he went all cute and boyish, and totally bottom-like (not that Axel had anything past temporary friendship in mind); then he reverted to being jaded and quiet, and now he was making passes at him?

"Oh, and Axel?" Axel looked over at the blond. Roxas grinned, "Thanks for taking me out tonight."

xxxxxx

Cloud nine was packed by the time Axel and Roxas had arrived. Much to Axel's relief, the blonde had settled for a personality somewhere between broken jailbait, and jaded hardass. Axel decided he liked this version of Roxas the best; but _version!? _He was getting way too used to this kid's mood swings.

The moment they were inside, the noise of people talking seemed to raise several decibels. Not that Roxas noticed. He strode right over to the bar to wave down some blonde, leaving Axel to follow after his charge.

"Hey, what can I do for ya? You look a bit young to be drinking, but what the hell do I know? The name's Cloud," the man reached out a hand, which Roxas took.

"Hi, I'm Roxas. I met you're uncle today and he told me to come back this evening to hear the music."

At the mention of Cid, Cloud paled a bit. "Oh, my uncle. Did he… mention anything about me?"

Roxas tilted his head curiously, "Only that the bar was named after you out of some practical joke. Why, should he have?"

A tension in the man's shoulders loosened. Roxas wondered silently what Cloud had suspected him to know. "Thank god. I thought he might have… well, it doesn't matter now. Anyway, Roxas, just let me know if I can get you anything. I'll be back here all night so just-"

"Cloud! Over here!"

Axel caught up with Roxas in time to see the two blondes turning to look at an approaching brunet. She had medium-length hair, brown eyes, and was wearing a white shirt with a leather skirt. He whistled. Not that he could help it, she was HOT. And he was MALE. This earned him a fairly vicious glare from Cloud, and an amused look from Roxas.

"Hi guys, the name's Tifa Lockhart. I'm Cloud's fiancé, so I appreciate the compliment, but you might want to keep the whistling to a minimum for your own sake." She made an elegant leap over the counter, and stood next to Cloud, letting him put a protective arm around her waist.

"Who the hell are you?"

Axel sighed; it seemed he was only talented enough to make nice with the psychotic ones. Even if they were blonde and cute. Well both were blonde, and Cloud was definitely not ugly but… Ah hell. Axel fails at life. "I'm Axel, I came here with Roxas. No offense meant there, it was kind of an automatic thing."

Knowing that Axel wasn't after his girl, Cloud relented a smile and held his free hand out for the second. "The name's Cloud. You're friend seems cool, but try not to let him drink too much because I'd be the one getting in trouble. Especially since he's underage."

Axel shrugged, and looked down at Roxas to find him staring at the girl. "Excuse me, but did you say your name was Tifa Lockhart?"

Tifa smiled and looked down at him, "You heard correctly. And you are Roxas, therefore we all know each other, and I kindly invite you guys to pull up seats and order drinks, or go find a table. Places to sit fill up fast and the Demyx is going to start his set soon."

Roxas blinked, "I know this sounds crazy, but I know a Tifa Lockhart; you guys look freakishly alike except she's about sixty years older than you."

Tifa laughed, "Oh, you must mean my grandmother. Yeah, I was named after her, so people get confused sometimes when they meet me."

Roxas made an "oh" with his mouth. Now he knew what Mrs. Lockhart looked like before she got old. Axel was watching the smaller blonde curiously, but said nothing.

"Yo Cloud, Tifa! Can you guys give me a hand up here? The crowd is starting to get too much for me to handle!" shouted another man from the other side of the bar.

Cloud cursed under his breath, and Tifa patted him comfortingly. "Do you guys all work together?" Axel inquired.

Tifa nodded, "Yeah, Zack is Cloud's best friend, so we've both known the family a long time. God knows Cid wouldn't hire just anybody to work his precious bar." Cloud whimpered at his uncle's name. "It's okay Cloud, he can't hurt you if you're making him money, so go help Zack and I'll cover this end." Cloud planted a kiss on her cheek and left to help the other man, who looked driven to the brink of insanity trying to balance eight shot glasses and two bottles of vodka.

"So, do you guys want anything to drink?" asked Tifa.

Axel looked at Roxas, who shook his head. "No, I think we'll just go find a table. It was nice to meet you."

"Take care, boys!"

They left the bar and waded into the crowd. Axel grabbed Roxas' hand and led him to a table on the side, where less people seemed to be. Everyone was too busy looking for seats in the middle or front to crowd them out.

"It should be starting soon," Roxas shouted over the crowd, which was starting to roar as everyone fought to find a place to see the stage.

It was only a few more seconds before the kid Roxas had seen that afternoon walked onto the stage, and took hold of the microphone. "Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen!" the yelling and laughing died down to a dull roar, as everyone looked up expectantly. "I want to thank you all for coming here tonight, both you who come to all my sets, or those of you who are new tonight," He looked over in their direction and Roxas waved. Axel blushed from embarrassment, and was about to tell him to cut it out when the man on the stage winked at them. More accurately speaking, he winked at Axel, and let his glance linger a bit longer than it should have before looking back to the rest of the crowd. He frowned. It was flattering and all, but he hoped that the guy didn't try to find him after the show. He wasn't interested.

Roxas, on the other hand, didn't notice this, and turned excitedly to Axel, "That's Demyx. I met him this afternoon. He doesn't think I'll like his music, but how bad can it be, right?"

Axel grunted and pulled one of the wandering waiters aside, asking them for a shot of something strong. Roxas asked for one too, and Axel gave him a very direct, "hell no," which seemed to satisfy the blonde without upsetting him.

By the time all of this had taken place, Demyx had finished his introduction, and brought a strange looking instrument on stage. Axel made a face. Roxas noticed.

The blonde chuckled, "Hey Axel, you've got stupid all over your face, want me to help you wipe it off?"

Axel blinked, and laughed with him, "Sorry, just trying to figure out what the hell that thing is."

Roxas looked back at the stage and smirked, "It's an electric Sitar." Axel stared was staring at him blankly when he glanced over, and continued, "I didn't even know they existed. I mean, I knew what a Sitar was, but I've never heard them. They come from the Middle East or something, but I never would have thought he'd be playing one. Let alone an electric. Look, you know it's electric because he has an amp, and a patch chord. Axel?"

Axel shook his head, "Too much information. I think my brain just when into overload."

Roxas laughed, he opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off by the introduction to the first song. The melody was complex, and sweet. Roxas frowned, but it was for a good reason. He didn't dislike it. The twanging strings made his frown crack around the edges, and before long he found himself grinning. It was ridiculous, and awesome. He had found music he liked! Even if it was because he thought it was silly.

Axel was listening to the music, but that was a secondary function. When it had come on, he had become as engrossed with watching Roxas as Roxas had with listening to the music. Pedophile? Him? Naw.

xxxx

Demyx played several songs, and Axel had lost track of how many. He didn't mind the music. Hell, the guy was pretty good. The only problem was the mild headache he got from the groupies in the front row that would start to screech and wail after every song. To his great amusement, Roxas quickly became one of them, but he had a feeling the blonde was making fun of them more than anything. Hey, Axel wasn't one to question one's methods of having fun. He had a record of arson to prove it.

The evening was going great. Both boys were having a blast, and when Roxas was too preoccupied with listening to pay attention to Axel, the redhead appeased himself with delicious free breadsticks. If that's what the five dollar fee at the door got them, he would definitely be coming to this place more often, hopefully with Roxas.

Finally, Demyx announced he only had time to play one more song, and thanked everyone again for coming to support him. Again, he looked at Axel and made some suggestive gesture that no one else noticed. He'd been doing it all night. Axel had stopped caring awhile ago, but was starting to get irritated, and had a few shots in him to make it worse.

He told Roxas he was going to the bathroom, and turned to get up when he saw the man sitting alone at the table behind him. Ah. That made more sense. Said man had sleight-gray hair, with hints of blue (what the hell kind of color was that, anyway? Axel wondered if it was natural…) and was flipped to the side and cut long, so as to cover one of his eyes. He waved back to Demyx from his seat, but Axel didn't miss the look he had received. Okay, this man was his. Great. In the space of only a few hours, he had managed not to piss off one but two overprotective boyfriends. Dandy.

The bathrooms were nice, for a bar. It was dimly lit, so he couldn't be sure, but it seemed clean, and didn't smell awful. It was even equipped with state-of-the-art automatic water/soap/paper towel dispensers. Axel found them nifty.

After relieving himself, and having plenty of fun with the automatic paper towel dispensers, he pushed open the door and entered in the middle of Demyx' last song. He was on his way to his table, but stopped when he got an eerie feeling that something was very wrong. A scream interrupted his thoughts, and tore its way through the music. Demyx hesitated, but kept playing. That was the professional thing to do, at least until he knew the source of the scream.

"AXEL! AXEL HELP ME!!" Axel bolted. He could see it now. Demyx's supposed boyfriend was standing by their table and holding something suspicious in his hand that Axel couldn't see. Roxas was pressed as far into the wall as he could get himself. The music had stopped, and people began standing up to try and get a better look. Axel shoved his way through those already standing.

"Hey, leave him alone!" Axel shouted over the noise. The man looked up at him, frowned, and then looked back at Roxas. Finally, Axel closed the distance, pulled back the man, and punched him square in the face.

The man crashed to the floor, knocking over a table and some chairs in the process, and Axel saw a something glint as it fell out of his hand. He took a step forward, and leaned forward for a closer look. His eyes widened in shock, "Oh, shit. Roxas, give me your hand! Roxas?" Axel turned to see the small blonde shaking in the corner, his eyes wide and unseeing. He was mumbling something to himself that Axel couldn't understand.

The redhead cursed and pushed a chair or two out of his way to reach the blonde, and lifted him up from his spot on the floor. Instantly, Roxas began to shriek and fight him. "Hey! Roxas, it's me, Axel! Roxas!" the redhead began to panic. The other man had sat up, and was watching them curiously. Axel glanced at the syringe next to him. It was still out of his reach, but was half full of something that the redhead didn't even want to know.

At the mention of Axel's name, Roxas had hesitated. He looked up at Axel, who turned back down to see Roxas' blue eyes wide with fear. "Get me out of here Axel. He's come to take me. Don't let him take me back Axel, Please!" Roxas began to sob desperately, and Axel didn't need to hear anything more.

A path cleared in the crowed as he shoved through the bar. Tifa called out to them, asking what had happened, but he ignored her. Roxas had asked him to get them out, and that came first.

Once he was out of the bar, Axel cradled Roxas closer to his chest. The blonde had begun to shake, and Axel was afraid he was going into shock. He couldn't look down though; he had to get somewhere safe. So he ran.

Thirty minutes, and four miles later, Axel stopped. He was gasping for breath, and his own arms were starting to shake from the strain of carrying Roxas across town. For the first time since they left the bar, he looked down to check on Roxas, and choked at what he saw. The blonde's eyes had gone a milky color, and his grip on Axel's shirt had weakened dangerously. There was a strand of saliva sliding down the corner of his mouth.

"Roxas?" he said. No response. "Oh god, Roxas?! Come on, buddy, what did he give you? Shit." Axel walked past a couple more houses and turned onto a smaller street before he finally walked up the stairs to his house. Frantically, he dug his keys out of his back pocket, barely managing not to drop Roxas, and unlocked his door, shoving it open and kicking it shut behind him after they'd entered.

There was sweat staining his chest, and the lower back of his shirt. It ran down his face as he climbed the stairs to the second floor and nudged a door open with his shoulder, sighing with relief as he set Roxas onto his bed. But it wasn't over. Roxas moaned awfully, and Axel bit his tongue when he heard it. The small blonde had broken into a cold sweat, and was ghostly pale. Axel sprinted down the hall to his bathroom and got a washcloth, which he rinsed out and ran back to wipe Roxas' face with.

"Come on, Rox. We're friends, remember? You can't die on me!" Roxas rolled his eyes toward Axel, but they were still a hideous milky grey color. He hadn't heard him.

"Fuck, no. This isn't happening." Axel stood up and paced his room, trying to think of a solution. He was lucky his roommate was gone and wouldn't get in the way, but he needed help. He picked up his phone and dialed a number from memory, holding it up to his ear to wait for someone to pick up.

"Hello?"

Axel sighed with relief, "Thank God! Namine, I need you to come over. NOW. I was out with a friend, and some weirdo gave him a shot of god knows what and now he's going all comatose. IDON'TKNOWWHATTHEHELLI'MDOING! I just went to the bathroom, and when I came back he was… Oh god, is he going to die? I can't live with that, Namine!"

"Axel, calm down! I'll have to think of an excuse to tell my parents, but I'll get there as soon as I can. It will probably be about ten minutes, okay? Just put a wet rag on his forehead and try to get him to drink a glass of water… unless you think whatever the stranger gave him was more than just an attempt to put him into a state of temporary paralysis. Actually, just the wash cloth. Wait until I get there to do anything else. Okay? I'm hanging up now, bye!"

The phone clicked, and Axel stared at it for a few seconds before hanging up. What was he supposed to do for the next ten minutes? He couldn't just do nothing, could he?

The redhead turned around to look at the blonde, and fought not to close his eyes. It was scary how dead-like Roxas looked. Actually, it was a possibility that he already was dead, but Axel's sanity refused to let him dwell on that. Instead, he walked over and sat down next to the bed and grabbed Roxas' hand.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have left you alone. This is my fault… but I can fix it. Namine, the girl I just called, is super smart. She went to my community college when she was still in high school. Now she's a grade or two ahead of me, studying to be a doctor or something. She'll fix you, I'm sure."

Axel closed his eyes, and rested his head on his forearm, his opposite hand still holding Roxas' when he felt a squeeze. He peeked up, and the boy hadn't moved but he had definitely felt it. Roxas was telling him that he would be okay, at least until help could get there.

xxxxx

Namine was a brilliant girl. At twelve she had placed second in the international high school level science fair. By fourteen, she had taught herself how to take apart and put back together several household electronics, plus both of her parent's cars. When she turned sixteen, she wrote an essay that earned her a scholarship to study at the college of her choice for her first four years. Every college wanted her; even the most prestigious in the country would send representatives to ask her to go. But instead of going to a university that specialized in engineering, computer sciences, or some other complicated major that smart people thrive with; she went to the local community college so that she wouldn't have to leave home.

Being a smart person, she still planned to get a smart person's medical degree, but she was in her fourth year at community college, and didn't feel like choosing a University to transfer to until she absolutely had to. It was at said community college that she had met Axel. They had one of those friendships that grew so fast, neither could quite place how and when it had started, but it had something to do with a small blonde girl who was fairly cute, if a bit young, that needed someone to play the big brother role when guys started making passes at her. Axel really loved that part.

But even though she went to community college, she was still too smart for her own good, and had started independent studies that were more demanding than her pre-med biology courses. Therefore, she was fairly competent in the field of medicine, even for a senior in college, and God knows she was far beyond the rest of her class in everything else.

But this particular night, Namine was doing what any med student would have done when a friend calls up with a medical emergency. She told her parents she had been invited to watch a very unique surgery that they were about to perform at the hospital, and would be gone until sometime the next day. Therefore, she was free to borrow a car, and cut people off on the freeway as she raced to get to Axel's house ASAP. Her medical bag from interning at the hospital was none too safely sliding around in her back seat.

The car stopped with a screech when she parked on the sidewalk, and by the time it was shut and locked, she had nearly reached the front door, bag in hand. Using the key hid under a pot next to the door, Namine let herself in and kicked the door shut behind her, throwing said key into a tray by the door and running up the stairs with a determined sparkle in her eye. Was it wrong to say she was a bit excited for her very first patient? Axel's broken arm when he had jumped off the school roof last year did not count.

"Axel? Where are you?" she called, but there was no response. So, she marched down the hall like a good little doctor-in-training and threw the door to Axel's room open. The redhead jumped with a start. Apparently he had fallen asleep next to his bed, which contained… a blonde boy. Not much older than Namine. A very cute one at that.

"N-Namine? How long was I out? When did you get here?" Axel rubbed his eyes, and tried to pretend he _hadn't_ just been sleeping at the wrong time.

"Don't worry, I just got here. And you sleeping either means that the situation isn't as bad as you made it sound, or you ran here carrying him across town and didn't get nearly enough sleep last night; in which case I say he is someone very important to you and better not take my spot as little sister."

Axel blinked, "The second, actually. And how could he take your spot, Nam, he's a boy. Sister doesn't really apply, younger or other."

Namine ignored him. She set her bag down by Roxas' feet and pulled out a stethoscope. "Axel, take his shirt off."

"W-What?"

"Do it. You said someone gave him a shot of something, I'm assuming it's some kind of ruffie. He shouldn't be in any immediate danger, but just in case I want to examine him. And he's an attractive boy who's basically unconscious and won't know anyway, so just do it."

"Namine, I didn't mean in a drink. I mean some psycho with a syringe shot him up with an unknown substance. I wasn't kidding when I said it was an emergency!" Axel was starting to get his edge of panic back. Had he really been exhausted enough to fall asleep?

He had already moved to take off Roxas' shirt, but paused when Namine didn't say anything. He looked over at the girl, and saw her face drain of color. "Namine, is everything all-"

"What did I tell you about taking off that damned shirt?" she whispered, her voice gone very serious. Axel did as he was told, and stepped back to let Namine work.

"Is he okay?" Axel asked carefully. He didn't want to distract her, but her sudden change in drive was seriously bothering him.

Without looking at, Namine replied, "Axel, I thought you had been telling me someone tried to date rape your friend, and you were freaking out because he was a bit woozy. A syringe changes that. Anything from heroine to biological waste could have been in the injection, and the time we lost between you getting here and me getting here could have been the difference between your friend living and dying."

Axel blanched. Roxas couldn't die, not like this. He had just gotten him to stop being all jaded and shit. Couldn't he at least hear the rest of the story?!

The minutes ticked by as Namine fluttered over Roxas, checking vitals, reflexes, and response to various substances she injected him with. She even drew blood at one point, but Axel didn't question it. She probably wouldn't have answered him if he did.

After what seemed like hours, but the clock amounted to another ten minutes, Namine sighed in relief. Axel perked up and waited expectantly.

"He'll be fine. He's perfectly stable and should come around in about an hour."

Axel let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. He ran a shaky hand through his hair, and Namine put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. He looked up at his girl, and pulled her into a hug. She let him.

"Thank you," he mumbled, planting a kiss on her hair. She giggled, "You make it sound like I saved his life or something."

Axel pulled back so he could look at her, "Well, didn't you?"

Namine's look became serious, and she made Axel sit down again. "If it had been something really deadly, he would look a lot worse, there would probably be a mess, and he might have been dead before I got here. Him being alive and stable when I got here was the first tell that whoever gave him that injection wasn't trying to kill him. I double checked and did some cheap home-made tests for other, harder to get drugs that would have a harmful, but slower acting effect, and so far all I've gotten are negatives. I did take a blood sample though, and I'll take it to the hospital tomorrow and test it myself to find out exactly what it was, but I may not be able to give you results for a couple days, maybe even weeks, after that."

Axel nodded. He didn't really care what it was, but he was certainly glad to know that Roxas would be okay. Namine grabbed his hand, and he looked back up at her, "Axel, you did the right thing. This wasn't your fault, and it was probably just some pervert looking for an easy target, but… can you tell me what you saw before he went comatose?"

Axel nodded, and explained everything from going to the bathroom and seeing the jerk behind them, to running Roxas all the way back to his house and calling Namine. When he was finished, the girl gave him a look.

"You ran here from downtown carrying that kid? I mean, even if he is small for a guy his age, no wonder you fell asleep! Talk about over exerting yourself…"

"Hey, I thought the kid was going to die, alright! What's more, it was me who left him alone, so it would have been my fault, or at least I would've felt that way."

"Sure… well your story is interesting. And slightly confusing."

Axel frowned, "What do you mean?"

Namine, who had long since pulled up a chair next to Axel, placed her chin in her palm and looked up at him, "Even if someone doped him up, he would have been utterly confused at worst. From what you said, he recognized the guy, and was petrified of him. That didn't come from the drug, which tells me that there's something you don't know about him and might want to find out."

Axel stared at her. Of course there were things about Roxas he didn't know. He looked over at the boy on his bed. They had left him lying face-up without a shirt on, but Namine had made sure to put a blanket on him. Axel squinted and leaned forward as he noticed something he hadn't seen before. Distantly, Namine asked him what was wrong, but he didn't hear her. Axel stood up and walked over to the bed. He pulled the blanket back a bit, and traced his finger on a light pink scar on the back of Roxas' neck that he had just barely seen. When it disappeared behind Roxas, Axel slid a hand underneath him and gently turned him onto his side. Namine gasped.

Covering Roxas' back were ribbons of scars, crisscrossing randomly. They began where Axel had seen at the bottom of his neck, and extended down below his belt line. Axel felt his face go blank. After exhausting his reserves of almost every emotion he held on the earlier events, there was only one left when he saw this. Anger. He wondered if the man Roxas had been so afraid of had done this, and decided he would kill him for it. All Roxas had to do was point at who did it, and they would burn.

"Axel!" the redhead snapped out of his trance, and turned to look at Namine, who had a concerned look on her face. He turned back to Roxas and covered him with a blanket, before returning to his chair and silently putting his head in his hands.

"I told my parents I wouldn't be going home until tomorrow, so I'm going to make use of your guest room," said the girl quietly. Axel didn't respond, and Namine didn't wait for him to do so. It wasn't until he heard his bedroom door click that he let out a shaky breath and asked, "Jesus, what have they done to you?"

**P.S. Not to sound arrogant, but I really like how this chapter turned out X3. Hope you guys did too!!!!**


	6. The Morning After

**Okay, first off; I'm terribly sorry for taking so long to update. It's horrible thanks when you guys are giving me such great reviews. But on that note, thank you so much for your compliments and encouragement! I really appreciate everyone's reviews, especially the one from 'Black and Red Candles'. You are a GOD among reviewers! Thank you so much!! Now enough of my babble, enjoy the chapter ;)**

Namine hadn't waited for Axel and Roxas to wake up in the morning. She left around seven, when the house was still creaking and sighing from the morning cold, and from all of the events that had occurred the previous night, she figured they both needed their sleep. Especially Roxas. Even if the drugs had left his system and the side effects had dissipated, he would probably sleep well into the afternoon.

After waking up she had made some breakfast for the two, knowing neither would really be in the mood to cook, and covered the servings of pancakes and sausage with plastic wrap over respective plates and left them in the fridge for Axel to find later. She had checked on them before she left, and Roxas was still asleep in the bed, Axel was kneeling on the floor next to it, with his arms and head sleeping next to the smaller boy on the edge of the bed. She made sure to put a blanket on him and cover up Roxas before collecting her medical supplies and departing for the hospital.

xxx

Namine was fairly familiar with Oblivion Hospital. The doctors there knew her face well, and most everyone was nice to her, and she liked them too. With all of the time she spent using the equipment in their lab, she knew how to do things with them that most of the nurses, and even some of the doctors, didn't know how to do. Because of that reputation, no one questioned her when she walked in cheerfully, like she usually did on weekends, and bee lined for the lab, bag in tow.

Luckily for her, it wasn't a busy day, and she was the only person in the lab besides a few interns doing busywork that wouldn't know the difference. Instantly, her cheery smile vanished as she honed her focus on work. She slid into a lab coat, pulled on some rubber gloves, and tied back her hair under a pair of bulky, plastic goggles.

Petri dishes, a microscope, and various vials were spread out on her workspace in a matter of minutes. She carefully pulled the samples she had taken the night before from Roxas out of a mini cooler she kept in her bag, and began dropping bits of them into various machines, and then typing on the computer to make it give her answers.

After about three hours of this, she sighed, leaning back to lift her goggles and check the readouts the computer had printed for her final test. She frowned at the results. After all her time spent in the lab, nothing had come up. So she decided to seek advice.

Vexen was head of the lab at Oblivion Hospital. He had numerous degrees in various specialties that incorporated copious amounts of chemistry, physics, biology, and a bunch of things that normal people couldn't pronounce. But there's something funny about being smart in subjects that normal people have never heard of, and how you tend to become highly regarded and make lots of money when you do. Either way, if anyone could diagnose what had been put in Roxas' bloodstream, it would be him; so Namine made her way through the corridors of the hospital towards his office.

Most people at O.H. tried to avoid Vexen, and most certainly never called him by his first name. The other staff could usually refer to him as 'The Doctor', and people would know which doctor they were talking about. Namine, on the other hand, had stunned the staff when she landed an internship under him. Vexen usually wasn't very amiable, and _never_ accepted interns, but Namine was Namine, was able to wedge her way into the genius' life. So much so, that she didn't even know his last name. She had called him Vexen from the beginning, and he had let her alone do so.

Namine knocked on the door to Vexen's office, and he called back for her to come in. She opened the door and walked into the spacey office, that was nearly empty, and approached the doctor sitting at his desk, which was by far the only place in the room that had crap piled high around it. He didn't look up as she approached, and kept working on whatever he was researching, but he initiated the conversation, "What can I do for you, Namine?"

The smaller blonde leaned against the side of the desk, next to Vexen, and tried to peer over his shoulder at what he was typing on his laptop, but he shut it before she could see anything, and turned to look at her expectantly. "I have a sample that I'm trying to analyze. It was taken a few hours before the subject was given an injection with an unknown substance, and after three hours, I'm stumped."

Vexen nodded and looked down at his hands as he thought, "I assume you tested it for any sort of drugs, both lethal and non, and attempted to identify any foreign variables." Namine didn't answer, because he hadn't asked it as a question. He stood up and gestured for her to lead him, and she grinned, turning on her heal and leading him back to the lab.

xxx

"Well I'll be damned," Vexen commented, nearly at a whisper. He had continued where Namine left off, with the girl as his assistant, and after about an hour he had finally found something.

"What is it?" asked Namine excitedly, rushing over to look into the microscope Vexen had vacated.

An onlooker would have thought them siblings because of the similar attire, and looks. Both adorned gloves, white lab coats, and goggles, but both also had blonde hair that they tied back loosely behind them when working, and Nordic skin tones. They even had similar habits when they worked. The only real differences between the two, aside from gender, were height and eye color. Not that they themselves had ever bothered to notice.

Vexen typed in furious bursts onto the computer as he responded, "The reason you couldn't find anything is because there wasn't anything unnatural in his bloodstream. Whatever the injection had in it was made entirely of natural substances. It's very uncommon to see this, so whoever used it must have been, or gotten it from, an expert."

Namine frowned. Why would such a person want to attack Roxas? She would think more on that later though, because her task at the moment was two identify the substance, which they still hadn't accomplished despite their progress.

"Can you name it Vexen?" asked Namine. The man relented the computer and turned to her with a smirk.

"I am a specialist in many things, even considered the best in some of them, but this doesn't fall under my expertise," Namine's face fell a bit at being told they had failed, and Vexen chuckled, "I don't understand why this is so important to you, but don't get so down. I have a friend, Xaldin. He might be able to identify the specific substance you're looking for."

Namine's face lit up with a grin, "Really? You'd do that for me?"

Vexen scrunched his face in confusion, "Well sure, but it might take awhile. He lives on the other side of the country, and it would take time to pinpoint the results. We're looking at least a month, but I'll see what I can do… OH!" Namine pounced on him with a hug, making the older man blush a bit. It wasn't that he liked Namine in a romantic way, he wasn't a pedophile, but he wasn't exactly a person who got hugged a lot either.

"Thank you so much! I owe you one," Namine looked up at him with a smile, and he grinned back.

"Glad I could help," he said, and she thanked him again before bounding off to get the necessary things to pack up their little research project.

A few of the other interns stared with shocked, or slightly horrified, looks on their faces at the sight of the head doctor showing emotions other than wrath, annoyance, and boredom. Vexen snarled at them, "What the hell are you useless pieces of flesh gaping at? If you don't have anything better to do than stare, get the fuck out!" The interns scattered and left Vexen to await Namine's return so he could help her ready the samples for shipping. He sighed and leaned back against the counter, sipping a cup of coffee that had been hot when he'd brought in with him, but it had gotten cold while they worked. A content smirk lining his face.

Not only were both him and Namine happy to be getting such great results in such a small time span, but he hadn't spoken to Xaldin in a long time. They had become good friends when they attended med school together, but their majors lead them to lose touch. Vexen had gone on to become a specialist in analyzing things for clinical medicine, such as finding problem's in tiny pieces of patient's body parts. Xaldin, on the other hand, had specialized in pharmaceuticals for psychiatric patients, and was currently working across the country at a prominent house for the mentally unstable; you might recognize it as an asylum.

xxx

Axel woke up like a switch had been flipped. One moment he was submerged in a dreamless unconscious, and the next he was awake with his eyes closed. The recollection from the previous night unfolded gradually, but Axel felt well rested and was able to calmly guess that he had fallen asleep next to Roxas.

Slowly, the redhead opened his eyes, but frowned when he saw that no one was in his bed. He stood up too quickly, and almost knocked over the chair he had slept in, and looked around frantically, but Roxas wasn't in the room. "Roxas?" he mumbled to himself. Axel rushed to the alarm clock on his bedside table and picked it up to read, "2:00pm? Shit!"

Axel ran to his closet, tore off his old shirt and threw on a clean one before running downstairs and freezing. At the kitchen table sat Roxas and his roommate Xigbar, eating pancakes and sausage.

"Axel! You're awake!" Roxas exclaimed, standing up in surprise. Axel frowned. Roxas looked around and picked up his plate, "you want breakfast?" he offered, smiling weakly.

Axel relented a sigh and smirked, "Thanks, but I'm fine," he lifted an eyebrow in question, "Xigbar, I thought you weren't supposed to be back until _next_ weekend?"

"What, and miss out on you bringing home the little guy? I can't believe you never told me you like younger men!"

Roxas' eyes grew wide and Axel's palm went to his face, "Shut up, Xigbar," Axel turned to Roxas, "Please don't listen to anything he says, he's almost always under the influence of something and has no idea what he's talking about."

Roxas nodded silently, but his eyes were still wary. The small blonde sat down and continued eating, his eyes shifting between Axel and Xigbar.

Axel glared at his eye patch donning roommate, "You, follow me. I need to talk to you."

Xigbar shrugged, "Whatever you say, man." The two excused themselves from Roxas, and Axel led them around a corner and into the living room.

The redhead turned on his heals and gave Xigbar a look that can only be described as suspicious. "What did you say to him?" he asked.

Xigbar put his hands up in surrender, "Easy dude, I didn't say anything! I swear! I just came home late last night, and when I woke up the kid was munching on some grub he found in the fridge," Axel didn't look satisfied, and Xigbar groaned with frustration, "What the hell man?! I didn't do anything wrong!"

Axel tightened his jaw, "Xigbar, I went out with Roxas last night and had to bring him back here because some psycho with a syringe doped him up. Namine stayed in the spare room, so she probably made the food you guys found in the fridge," Xigbar made an O with his mouth. Axel rested his hand on his roommate's shoulder, "Now, for his sake, I need to know what you've said to him since you first saw him this morning."

Xigbar tugged on his eye patch as he thought aloud, "Well, I only woke up about fifteen minutes ago. The blonde kid was already there. I asked him who he was and he said his name was Roxas, and I asked him how long he'd been there and he said he wasn't sure but probably since last night, so I asked him what he was here for and he says you probably brought him here unconscious. After that we talked about the sausage until you came out."

Axel blinked, "That's it, and you're sure?"

Xigbar lifted an eyebrow, "Yeah man, but if you ask me you're worrying too much. Blondie's fine!"

Axel gave up and they left the living room to find Roxas sitting in the kitchen with an empty plate. "How was breakfast?" asked Axel. He and Xigbar sat down at the table. Roxas grinned, "Really good, thanks."

"Oh you'll have to thank Namine for that, she's the one who made it," Axel replied. Roxas tilted his head. "You haven't met her yet but I'm sure she'll stop by later to check on you."

Roxas frowned, "Why would someone I've never met want to check on me?"

Axel hesitated, not sure how to respond. Xigbar groaned, "Sorry guys, but it's too early for me to be a part of this conversation; later!" and with that, Axel's roommate went back upstairs with what was left of his breakfast.

"Axel," the redhead looked back to Roxas, "What happened last night? All I can remember are bits and pieces. I can't remember the show ending, but I remember you carrying me. Then I woke up, and I was in your bed!"  
Axel chewed on his lip. So Roxas didn't remember getting the shot from the weird guy? He thought about what Namine had told him about Roxas probably having known the man who doped him up, but he had been so terrified…

"Axel?" Axel looked up at Roxas, "What's wrong? What happened?" his blue eyes were wide with worry, and the older boy slid his hand over his face.

"Roxas, last night a man who was sitting near us attacked you. He injected you with something from a syringe that totally knocked you out and I carried you back here. My friend Namine is a med student and she came to check on you, but apparently she left before anyone woke up." Axel had said all of this without looking at Roxas, but now he looked up. Roxas was staring at his hands, and looked like he was about to cry. Axel panicked, "But you're fine! I'm sure there wasn't anything permanent done, and there's no way he'll find you here, so you don't have to-"

"Axel," Roxas interrupted. Axel shut up. "What did he look like?"

"Umm," the redhead wasn't sure telling him would be a good idea, but lying didn't seem too brilliant either; so he told the truth, "He had bluish-grey hair. It was sort of long, and swept across his face to cover one eye."

Roxas clenched his fist and slammed it against the table, and Axel started. The smaller blonde's breathing became ragged. Inexplicably, Roxas stood and headed towards the door.

"Roxas!" Axel got up to follow him, but Roxas turned and raised a hand, stopping him.

"Don't follow me Axel, I have to go."

Axel stood, dumbfounded, and watched Roxas walk out the door. He didn't really feel anything about it, almost as if it hadn't sunk in yet that his friend had left. Slowly, he lowered himself into his chair. He sat like that for several minutes, trying to figure out what he should do. On one hand he was worried to death about what would happen to the poor kid, but on the other it wasn't really sure it was any of his business. He'd only met Roxas a few days prior, but he felt responsible…

"DAMMIT!" he shouted, throwing himself out of the chair and heading for the door. He'd be damned if this kid got hurt because he was too stupid to do anything about it, and besides; he still hadn't heard the rest of that story.

**Reviews are appreciated! I'll update soon!! Thanks for reading ;)**


	7. AN

**Hey everyone,**

**I just wanted to thank you all for your reviews, everyone has been super encouraging while I write this, so I felt like I should **

**tell you a bit more formally. Also, if anyone happens to see some sort of **

**blatant problem in a chapter, please tell me!**

**Sorry if you were disappointed that this was just an AN ^^**

**~Imortal-requiem**


	8. Lost

**I LIIIIIIVE! So so so sorry it took me so long to update. Thanks to everyone who's been reviewing and keeping up with this even though I suck at posting regularly... but have faith, my readers, because it is summer and there is no school! I should have ample time to update within reasonable spans of time... but anyways, I hope you enjoy the new chappy, I've been working very hard on it!**

**P.S. Sorry for any errors. **

**Finished this at about 12:30 am and haven't really slept all weekend, so mistakes are probably there. Just try to ignore them please XD**

"Roxas!"

The blonde ignored his name and quickened his pace down the cobblestone road.

"Roxas! I'm _behind_ you, God Dammit! At least wait for me to catch up and _then_ ignore me if you're not going to turn around and listen!"

"…"

Roxas slowed to a stop and turned around, allowing Axel to see the dark glint in his eyes. He was distantly sad to have to see his fiery friend again, when he was very clearly trying to cut ties. But despite his efforts to escape without notice, the redhead jogged to catch up and, much to the blond's surprise, kept on going.

"Wha-," he began, but Axel's look cut him off. The small blond grimaced when he saw the taller boy ahead of him look over his shoulder to throw a devilish smirk back at blue eyes that were clouded in confusion.

Roxas' eyebrows snapped together in annoyance, and he began to follow. Wasn't Axel supposed to be chasing him while he tried to make his escape, not the other way around? Once caught up, the smaller boy raised concerned eyes to Axel, who pretended not to notice.

"Axel?" asked the blonde. The redhead continued unfazed. Roxas grunted in the back of his throat, "Tch." He rolled his eyes and snorted, taking a turn at the next intersection and veering away from Axel. The last thing he wanted to worry about was a bi-polar fire-crotch that he probably shouldn't be hanging around anyway. The favors the taller boy had done for him aside.

Sadly for his plans, though, Roxas was torn out of his thoughts as a hand grabbed the bend in his arm. A feeble yelp emitted itself as sign of his startle, and he turned raised eyebrows to Axel, who now looked damn right conspiring.

"I don't think so. You, sir, are coming with me today," Axel replied to the unasked question. Roxas frowned, but with less annoyance and more 'my parents taught me not to go anywhere with strangers'. Then again, Axel wasn't much of a stranger anymore… and Roxas was technically the older of the two anyway.

Formalities aside, Roxas couldn't contain his question, "Axel, what the hell is wrong with you? I could charge you with kidnapping for this."

This time Axel raised a teasing eyebrow at the blonde, "Right. The one trying to convince _me_ he's walked this earth longer than my grandmother is accusing _me_ of kidnap. You would make a terrible lawyer."

Roxas face wrinkled in blatant lack of understanding, "Fine, but where the hell are you taking me?"

Axel grinned, "Us, love, _us._ I'm taking us on a date."

The blonde tripped on the street as a result of his distraction, and Axel reached a long arm out to catch him instinctively. Hmm, funny how Roxas didn't remember when they had started walking again. A blush ran through to his cheeks, tinting them pink, much to Axel's amusement.

Without letting go, the redhead righted the smaller boy and tried to save him from a bit of his impending embarrassment by only allowing the corners of his mouth to tug upwards toward a smile.

"You were looking pretty content eating breakfast with Xiggy this morning," he began after a moment of awkward silence, " in fact, it wasn't until I told you about the weirdo last night that you freaked out and left." Axel's smile had dissipated, and now his melt-your-heart green eyes showed nothing but protective concern. Roxas only pouted a little.

Making sure to watch the blonde carefully, so as to gauge his reaction and stop him before he tried to bolt, Axel continued, "So now, to make up for last night, we are going to spend the day together. I've already planned everything out," Axel removed his hand from Roxas' to start counting off his list with his fingers, "First we'll hit the movies. There's one that just came out about the apocalypse and grilled cheese that I've had my eyes on; then we'll go to the buffet, because I'll be starving and movie theater food is just too damn expensive, then we'll go say hi to Cloud, because we owe him an apology for last night and, honestly, it should be around six by the time we do all those things; JESUS, DID I SLEEP IN TODAY OR WHAT? And then… Roxas?"

Axel slowed to stop as he looked up, but his companion had managed to disappear sometime during his ramblings. Groaning, the redhead pinched the bridge of his nose, and slammed a fist into the house he was standing by. His eyes were squeezed shut as he tried to dissuade himself from pummeling his own face into the cobblestone. This was embarrassing, but any self-mutilating actions he wanted to commit at the moment wouldn't benefit him, his situation, or Roxas' situation in any way whatsoever, and certainly wouldn't help him find the pouty little dumbass.

Axel scanned his surroundings, even though he knew he wouldn't find Roxas nearby. So, instead of looking further, he decided to set out for the one place he knew he had luck finding the little blonde at. And, with the determination that only a sage, or a _real_ jackass can have, he would wait there for the boy to show up for as long as it took. Call it a hunger strike, if you like, but he certainly didn't resemble Ghandi. He loved his hair too much to become a monk.

However, once that thought had sunk in, he shrugged inwardly and made for the nearest coffee shop. Roxas sure as hell wasn't going to head straight for the one place Axel could find him after going through all the effort to ditch him, so the redhead strolled on without the slightest hint of worry… which was sort of backwards, but he knew that coffee would fix everything… or at least allow him to put off problem solving until later.

xxx

Roxas hid in an alleyway, allowing shadows to cloak his presence until Axel was long gone. Somewhere inside, a piece of him hoped that Axel wouldn't do anything too stupid to try to find him, which his gut said would most definitely happen anyway. The vast majority of his brain, on the other hand, was seething with annoyance. He needed to stay more low-key. Last night's incident was inexcusable. He'd be damned if he let that… that psycho get his hands on him again.

Axel having been out of sight for a few minutes already, Roxas allowed himself to let out a sigh of relief. He turned to follow the alley into the labyrinth of houses and take the back roads home, but he was stopped by two familiar figures.

The small blonde was pretty sure he made some noise to indicate his startle as he gaped at Marluxia and Larxene. _'Shit,'_ was the only thought his mind could react with.

Marluxia leaned against the fence lining one side of the alley. He was picking at his coat as if there was dirt or lint to be removed, but Roxas knew this action was just one of the ways Marluxia made himself appear indifferent, because their coats were always pristine.

Larxene, slender and elegant though she was, looked like a kid who just saw Santa…and happened to have a sadistic streak. Roxas hadn't seen her move, but she was suddenly behind him, looking out from their hidden corner as if she could see something exciting.

_"Was that him, Roxy? Was that your new toy?" The woman raised a thin eyebrow at him, flashing a grin that was both malicious and childishly gleeful._

The boy gave her a displeased look, "He's not a toy. And I'd appreciate it if you two would leave him alone," Roxas let out a long breath, and ran a tired hand through his hair, "I'm done messing around with him anyways."

_Marluxia stopped messing with his coat, and raised his cold eyes to Roxas. "So you were planning to end it? No more suspicious meetings, no more spending the night away from home?"_

Roxas' glare was murderous as it fell upon the taller man, "Don't call that spit of an apartment home. I haven't had a home since… since before all of this happened!" Roxas waved his hands demonstratively, as if it explained precisely what 'this' was.

_ Larxene wrapped a slender arm around the small boy's shoulders, thrusting her lower lip into a pout, "Oh, aren't you feeling a bit feisty today!"_

"Piss off, you two," Roxas grumbled, but his last syllable was cut to a staccato as a thunderous crack echoed in the secluded row; a result of Roxas' own head connecting with the very solid brick wall beside him. Eyes wide in fear and surprise, Roxas silently shifted his gaze between his two contractors. Marluxia tugged on one of his black, leather dress gloves, feigning to wipe off any of the boy's face he'd picked up from the back-hand. Larxene was grinning violently, and began to pace in front of him like a wildcat before cornered prey. The blonde silently raised a hand and noticed it shaking as his prodding fingers returned from his head to show blood.

Larxene's eyes had a feral sheen to them. She hunched her shoulders into a predatory posture as she slowly ran the tip of her pink tongue over her pretty, narrow lips. Her mouth was parted slightly, and he could hear her panting breath. But her pacing had come to a rest, and she began to give him a look so insane, so hungry, that Roxas knew he would die. He knew that if she got a hold of him, he would die. Because whatever creature she was in present, he couldn't convince himself that she had once been human.

Small, scared, and losing blood quickly, Roxas closed his eyes. He didn't want to watch. If he was going to be killed, he didn't want to see it coming. So he waited. And waited… but nothing happened. When he finally gave in to his urge to see what went wrong, one blue eye peeped out from behind his sweat-soaked locks and showed him that Marluxia had placed a hand on Larxene's shoulder to restrain her. The man with hair like spring looked down on Roxas like one would look at a dog they were trying to get rid of. The kind of pitiful animal they would later end up securing in a pillow case and throwing into a river.

Roxas swallowed hard enough for it to hurt, but his eyes were growing heavy and his vision began to blur as he started to lose his grip on consciousness. The smell and feel of the air around them seemed to change as his contractors turned and left him. They would leave him alive, but only because they all knew what was coming. He'd broken the rules. Even though they were cruel and would have enjoyed killing him themselves, they were obligated to save him for Xemnas. Because even if he denied it, or hadn't realized it himself before that moment lying in the alley, he loved Axel. Not in a romantic way, but he needed him more than he needed air to breath. He needed someone to take care of him. And because the seeds of their relationship had begun to sprout, his contractors' organization, more specifically their leader, would cut him off and terminate him.

He didn't cry. He was too tired to cry. As despair crawled over him and pressed him deeper into the ground he was sitting on, and further into the wall he was leaning against, he motionlessly decided that he would give up. For the sake of the best friend he had made in over a century, the only friend, and the man that he needed most at that moment, Roxas fell asleep and hoped he would never wake up.

…

Zexion enjoyed sleeping in. Having a degree from a distinguished university such as the one he'd attended not too many years ago had given him the opportunity to indulge himself in such a lifestyle. So, understandably, he didn't appreciate being interrupted from the rest he'd worked so hard to earn. Even if it was his cell phone ringing, the number of which was only known by a select few individuals that the doctor enjoyed the company of. Even if, as he read the caller ID, his boyfriend was the culprit of such a heinous crime. And even if said boyfriend had a pretty damn good reason to call.

"What the fuck happened last night?" the question was more of a demand, was more of a shout from the phone. Zexion had predicted this reaction to the incident of the previous evening and was patiently cradling the phone in his left hand, approximately one arm's length away from his ear. Hopefully he could prevent some of the inevitable damage to his eardrum this way.

"ARE YOU LISTENING? That kid you assaulted was sweet; harmless! Why did you try to dope him up like that? And, hear you me, if you try to make a single rape joke out of this, I WILL NOT BE LAUGHING!"

The sleight-haired man tossed his bangs uselessly into the same position they had been in before. Covering the right half of his face. It was his way of saying 'fuck off, I'm smarter than you'. The hair style, that is.

But at the moment, he was alone in his condo. His over-stuffed bed was too large to be practical for a man living alone, but sometimes he had Demyx over to keep it from being too much of an odity. An intellect to be reckoned though he was, pragmatic he was not.

He was distantly prying his own brain to figure out how long it would take Demyx to simply hang up and head over in person. His boyfriend's tantrum was to be expected, but Zexion already knew he didn't want to discuss anything over the phone, so instead of replying, he set the phone down on his mahogany bedside table, and rolled over to go back to sleep.

His plan, however, failed when he heard a knock coming from the front door. His eyes widened a bit. He hadn't expected Demyx to arrive that quickly. Groaning, he flung the covers off of himself and snatched the stylish device into his hand.

"You bastard! You're interrupting my sleep on purpose," he accused into the phone. Demyx noticed a hint of whining in his tone, like a snotty child not wanting to be bothered, and normally would have found it cute. But the situation called for more attention than Zexion was giving it, and the musician was beginning to get angry.

"Get your brilliant ass to this door before I count to three, or I swear I'll kick it down and maim you," hissed Demyx.

Zexion smirked at the idea of what Demyx could possibly mean by 'maiming' him, but simply responded by walking out of his bedroom to the origin of the knock, and opening the door to let his guest inside.

Demyx brushed past his boyfriend and slammed the door behind him. The condo looked the same as it always did. Monochromatically white and so fucking clean you could almost see your reflection in the goddamn carpet.

He didn't even bother to take off his shoes as he began to pace furiously. Zexion watched and observed, a slight frown was the only indication that he was remotely perturbed, and they both knew that it was less because of Demyx' behavior and more because his shoes were probably tracking dirt on his clean carpet.

Demyx stopped pacing and turned to face Zexion. He waved his arms dramatically before yelling, "What happened? I know you're always right. So just tell me, you smug bastard!"

Zexion's gave Demyx the blankest face he could give. The wheels in his head were turning as he tried to figure out how he could talk himself out of telling Demyx. It was obvious that his behavior at the bar would be alarming to most. But if he were to tell Demyx why… well he didn't want to have to deal with the repercussions at the moment.

"Demyx," Zexion said his name like it was a command, but Demyx didn't hear him. The sitarist was moving about the room as if standing still were deadly and rambling so fast that he hadn't noticed the response.

"DEMYX," he demanded loudly. The tall blonde stopped and turned to Zexion, who had a very serious look on his face. The look was enough to shut him up.

"I can't tell you," Zexion said flatly. Demyx frowned, and opened his mouth to protest, but Zexion held up a hand, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose with the other. "Please, just trust me. It's really important that information concerning that boy remains between a small number of people, and even though you know I'd trust you with anything, you simply don't _need_ to know. And I'd like to keep it that way."

When the smaller man looked up for a response, Demyx seemed to roll the thought over in his mind before nodding in agreement. Zexion sighed, "Thank you. Now, if it makes you feel better, I have plans to fix this. To make last night worth scaring Roxas, and his friend. That red head he seems so attached to really throws a wrench into everything, and I have to fix it before anyone gets hurt."

Demyx didn't say anything, so Zexion walked into his bedroom. Demyx followed. He walked into his closet and began to get dressed while Demyx sat on the bed and waited patiently. When Zexion emerged, he was wearing a black long-sleeved dress shirt with black pants. The man on the bed found it predictable.

The short man passed Demyx as he headed out towards the door. Grabbing his car keys, he called from the other room, "I'll be going to get some breakfast now. I'm going to cancel my appointments and stay home today so if you hang around I should be back in an hour or two after I run some errands."

Demyx didn't say anything as Zexion opened the door and left. Their relationship was always sort of like that. Demyx was the emotional one, Zexion the one that seemingly had no emotions at all. But he did. People who knew him really well knew that, beneath all the layers of arrogance and belittling, he felt emotions even deeper than most people did.

But what had Demyx silently obeying his boyfriend of a little over two years, was the look he'd seen in the other man's eyes. Zexion was afraid. And when someone who is supposed to make others feel safe gets scared, the whole world should run for cover.

**AND THE PLOT THICKENS! I hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. I LOVED writing demyx and zexion. They're just so interesting, and juicy... lol... juicy. Anywho, the next plot should be pulling a lot of curtains, and, if all goes well, I'll do my best to post it within the next week or so. In the mean time I'd really appreciate your reviews! I feel like this fic alone has drastically helped me to expand and improve my skills as a writer, and want to hear whether you all think the same! Either way, thank you so much for reading. Until next time!  
**


	9. A Vicious Cycle

**New chappy already! I'm on a roll! This one's a tad... dramatic, but I think you'll all appreciate it anyway ^^. Thanks so much for all the reviews! I'm a bit lazy and don't respond to most of them, but they really do mean a lot to me! Now, enjoy!**

Axel stood next to the counter in a small café. He'd ordered coffee. Black. Where it came from or what type of bean was in it didn't concern him. His logic dictated that any coffee is good coffee, and in his mind if you tainted it with anything that made it taste less like coffee, you didn't deserve to drink such a golden beverage.

The barista handed him his drink, and shooed him away so that other customers could wait for theirs. The redhead turned and took three steps before something walked through the door that stopped him. The guy was small for a man, but taller than Roxas. He wore a black long-sleeved dress shirt with black slacks. The look was highly professional, from shoes to collar, but what had Axel frozen was the unusually grey-blue hair swept across his face to hide the right half of his profile.

Axel's teeth clenched, and his hand tightened around the fragile cup. The bastard from the night before hadn't even noticed him yet because his vision was taken up by a book in his hand. The line was several people long, and when the stranger stopped at the end to wait, Axel approached until he stood behind the shorter man.

"Well, if it isn't the hit and run freak from Cloud 9," began Axel. His breath was seething with anger, and his face had twisted into a furious snarl, but he managed to contain his volume enough that they were the only two who could hear him.

The sleight-haired man glanced over his shoulder, and calmly replied, "Zexion. My name is Zexion."

Axel grumbled before placing a strong hand on Zexion's shoulder and turning the smaller man to face himself. "Yeah, Well I don't care what your name is. All that matters to me is kicking the shit out of you as payback for last night," Zexion continued to read unperturbed, Axel slapped the book to the floor and hissed, "The FUCK is wrong with you?" Axel was sputtering with anger, and had begun to receive curious looks from various other customers within earshot of the conversation.

Zexion slowly raised his lone, blue eye to meet Axel's fiery green ones. Sighing, he reached in his back pocket and retrieved a black, leather wallet. He casually slid out a simple, white card with black lettering on it. Axel made a face illustrating that he was clearly lost, but hesitantly took the card and read it.

"Destiny Psychiatric Home, Head Doctor," Axel glanced up to find Zexion bending forward to pick up his book. Axel's attention returned to the card. "Mental health only exists in an environment with healthy ideas…" below the writing was contact information and an address. The redhead was confused. What the hell did the man's business card have to do with trying to dope up Roxas?

The taller man looked up from the card to find Zexion returning from the counter with a coffee cup identical to the one in his hand. They silently stared at each other for a moment, but when Axel opened his mouth to begin an interrogation, Zexion spoke first, "I've known Roxas for five years now. He came to me as a severely damaged patient, and escaped from the home in the Destiny Islands about four months ago. I've been following his trail ever since, but only ran into him by coincidence last night. Demyx, the musician you two went to see, is my boyfriend and I was taking time off to see him play." Axel's eyes were so wide he would have been worried about them falling out of their sockets had the situation been less serious.

Zexion motioned for Axel to take a seat by one of the small tables to the side of the café. He did so, and the other man sat across from him. Zexion folded his hands in front of his face, waiting patiently for Axel to respond. Axel glanced nervously at Zexion, and swallowed hard. He hadn't been expecting such a… practical alibi.

Inhaling slowly, Axel ran a shaky hand through his hair before quietly saying, "I don't believe you." Zexion quirked an eyebrow, prompting the lanky man to continue, "I mean, your card looks real, and it all makes sense… but Roxas is my friend. I can't just… Believe you. It feels wrong." Axel rubbed his face with the palms of his hands, as if it would rub away the confusion. Zexion stood and placed a hand on Axel's shoulder; the redhead stiffened, and shrugged it off with a heated glare.

"Don't think that being a doctor makes me okay with what you did last night. If you're a shrink, you should understand the importance of keeping your patient calm and controlled. You had him on the ground screaming for help!" Zexion opened his mouth, but Axel shook his head and continued, standing to leave as he did so, "No. Just stay away from us. I can help Roxas, and that's all that matters."

Axel turned to leave but was stopped by a hand on his arm. He was distantly surprised by the strength in the grip of such a petite man, but outwardly he radiated disgust and anger. Still, Zexion made sure their eyes were locked, his eyes conveying the magnitude of the situation, before he continued, "No matter what you think you know, you don't really know anything. Roxas is sick. He's living in a world that you can't begin to understand after such a short span of time with him, and if you get too close to it you'll just end up getting sucked in with him," Axel roughly pulled his arm from Zexion's grasp and stepped back a before spitting on the ground before the smaller man. The other customers kept their heads low, trying to avoid disrupting the struggle.

As he turned to leave, Zexion called out to him, "It will get worse; but before it does just ask Roxas! Ask him about his _real _past! When you come up with nothing, call me so we can work together to help him! YOU CAN'T FIX HIM ALONE!"

Axel felt blind with anger. Everything was evil, everything was out to get him. He'd left his coffee on the table in the café, but he didn't care. Walking on the old roads of Hollow Bastion, he just wanted one thing; Roxas. But he knew he wouldn't find the kid. He'd have to let his companion come to him.

As he turned off the main road, and started easing into a more residential area, he glanced up to a clock on a nearby building. It was 3:30 pm. He knew where he was going, and the back of his mind hoped the walk there would calm him down a bit. But if it was helping, it wasn't helping fast enough.

"God, fucking DAMMIT!" he cursed, kicking someone's trash bin over in their driveway. He stopped; sweat trickled down his forehead from the summer heat combined with walking so… emotionally. "AHHHH!" he fell to his knees as he screamed his wordless frustration and drove his fist into the concrete road. The road won, of course, but the sheer physicality of the action calmed him slightly. Or maybe it was the red pooling on his knuckles that did it. Either way, he tried it again, and again, and again, each time screaming wordlessly, each time coming a bit closer to what he was trying to find.

When he had exhausted himself, he rolled to his side and leaned against the bin he'd kicked. His chest heaved with his heavy breathing, and salt lined his lips from the perspiration. He raised each hand, trembling from the adrenaline rush, and felt empty as he stared at his tattered fingers, the skin worn down to the bone in some places, both a bloody mess.

Looking up, he saw the cloudless sky, a cerulean sheet, undisturbed by anything foreign. Then, whether from overexertion or because he was so desperate he didn't know what else to do, but he started to laugh. Later he would remember that moment and be thankful that no one was there to see him in such a pitiful state.

Zexion's words kept ringing in his ears. He didn't know anything. He couldn't help. He sat motionlessly and let his mind go blank until the sky turned red, and he decided it was time to move. Slowly, and favoring his mangled hands, he stood and continued up the hill. Each step held less hope, and each shallow breath less worth; but he couldn't give up. Not without Roxas. He loved that kid. In ways that even he didn't understand. They had only met a few days prior, but the emotions that Roxas had shared with him had been too powerful not to affect him. In the end Axel felt the need to hold his little friend close and never let him go. Roxas needed him, but for the first time since they met, he needed Roxas.

Axel reached the top of a hill like the end of a journey. He drug his feet the last few steps to the bench where it had all begun, and sat down. When he'd caught his breath, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. It was 7:00pm and he had three missed calls from Namine. He ignored them, and instead opened a new text message.

-Unless you want me to die of starvation, come to the place where we met. I'm not moving until I see you… We need to talk.

It was only after he had typed his message that he realized he'd never asked for Roxas' number. That had a smile tugging on his lips. Silently, his phone was tucked back into his pocket, and Axel looked out to the sun. He was overreacting, really. Roxas would probably be fine without him… that was what he told himself. Over and over and over again. He shouldn't worry. It wasn't his business.

"Roxas," he whispered. He jumped slightly as his phone vibrated. He pulled it out and flipped it out only to find Namine calling. He smiled sadly and moved his thumb to the power button to turn off his phone. "Sorry Nam," he apologized, "I just need to be alone right now."

As he watched, he could only think that the sunset soothed him. Whatever it was that had Axel so upset earlier seemed to be washed away by a pool of warmth courtesy of the setting sun… but, somewhere in the pit of his stomach, he watched the night sky light up with fire, and wished he could burn with the day.

xxx

Namine cursed and threw her phone across the room. Why the hell wouldn't Axel pick up his goddamn cell? He'd never, since they'd met, missed a call from her, and now that it was important he'd already missed twelve.

A large hand rested on her shoulder and she span around to see Xigbar putting his palms up as if to say, 'look, harmless! See?'. Apparently her face was showing a bit too much of the displeasure she felt. The girl exhaled audibly and smiled tiredly, "Sorry, Xigbar, I'm just frustrated." The older man must have just returned from work, because she'd let herself in about an hour earlier in search of Axel, who she hadn't found.

"I see. Well if it helps, Axel hasn't come home since he left three days ago with Blondie… er-the other Blondie… maybe they're still together?" the eye patch and the scar really only made him look creepier, but Namine was used to Xigbar waggling his eyebrows for whatever reason, so she simply frowned and continued.

"I don't care. I have important information for him, but regardless, am I the only person concerned by the fact that no one's heard from Axel in three days?"

Xigbar frowned and looked up, scratching his head as he thought, "Well yesterday I swung by Cloud 9 for a drink. The dude working the bar mentioned something weird happening a few nights ago, so I asked and sure enough they were talking about Roxas and Axel. I asked if they'd seen either of them since," Xigbar snapped his fingers and grinned at Namine, "Turns out Roxas stopped by yesterday to apologize for what happened. He wouldn't explain it, but said he was leaving town tonight and just wanted to make sure there were no hard feelings."

Namine almost fell over from sheer shock. Roxas was leaving? And he wasn't with Axel? What the hell was going on? But a moment was all she needed to think of a plan and act. Xigbar's questions went unheard and unanswered as Namine wordlessly grabbed her purse and walked headed for down town. She needed to find Roxas.

Xxx

Vexen chuckled over the phone as he span around in his chair. He was in his office on the phone with Xaldin, who'd identified their mystery substance and sent them back results. Namine had already read them and scampered off to tell her friends before he could see, so Vexen got the opportunity to call and ask directly…

"So Xaldin, as much as I'd love to catch up with you, I really wanted to know what the results of that test were. Namine got a hold of them and ran off before I could take a look."

The silence on the other end chilled the doctor a tad; it was as if Xaldin had to think about what he'd say before he said it, because the wrong words would cause global panic. But after a moment he replied, "I'm glad you sent it to me. It's not something that even most specialists would be able to identify."

Vexen nodded, realized Xaldin couldn't see it, and cleared his throat before prompting, "Go on."

"Vex, we're talking high class substance here. This was home made, and not by some street bum psycho. This is a very hard to make recipe we are talking about, years of practice and skill go into getting it right. You're looking at a very, VERY good psychiatrist with a degree in chemistry…"

Vexen frowned. Although it was great that whoever possessed the syringe wasn't a psycho, he still wasn't sure he liked where this was headed. He vaguely understood why Namine had been in such a hurry to get the information to Axel the other day.

"Vexen, were you listening?" Xaldin sounded mildly irritated at being ignored.

Vexen winced at the tone, but only because no one was present to see him do it, "I apologize, could you repeat what you just said?"

"This is serious Vexen. You need to tell Namine to tell her friends to stay the hell away from whoever the target of this was. It's a clear indicator that normal drugs aren't enough to knock him out, and that he's dangerous to not only himself, but others too."

Vexen frowned as he asked, "So what do you think the kid who got the shot has?"

Xigbar sounded vaguely amused as he replied, "That's the easy part. Schizophrenia."

**O-O Be honest. Who saw that coming? If you were even mildly surprised by this chapter then yay, I did my job as a writer ^^. Review please!**


	10. Cloud's Virginity

**UPDATES! Yay! Sorry it took so long :/. Busy Busy Busy. If it makes you any happier, we're nearing the conclusion with each chapter! As of about chapter six or seven, I was thinking that this fic would probably be about 13 chapters, plus an epilogue. Now, I'm not so sure. I keep getting distracted and writing in side stories. Not that that's a bad thing... but remember Zemyx a few chapters back? Total Accident. Well, maybe not an accident. But it was one of those things that sort of just happened. This chapter is like that. I had fun writing it. Hope I didn't get too carried away though XD. **

**Anyways, enjoy! And thanks for the reviews on the last chapter! I really appreciate all of you who still follow even though my updates are sporadic xp  
**

It had been three days since Namine had seen or heard from Axel and Roxas. It had been several hours since she left Axel's house, in search of either boy, and so far had come up with shit for clues as to where one or both could be. Agitated out of her mind, if only to cover up the cold pit of worry growing heavier in her stomach, the small blonde shoved her way through the crowded streets of downtown Hollow Bastion, en route to the outskirts of town when she saw it. A hill, tucked away in the corner of town, nondescript, and very low-profile compared to the rest of the city, but once she saw it she got a gut feeling telling her Axel would go there. To get away, there were very few places you could go in such a huge city, and she'd just found the last one she could think of checking before giving up completely.

Of course, being highly important to her personally didn't make it any closer geographically. The late afternoon sun beat down on her ruthlessly as she hiked through streets and began to climb the hill, nearly five miles from where she'd spotted it. Sweat beaded on her forehead and the back of her neck as she reached the top, only slightly out of breath, and nearly kicked her heels when she saw him. Axel was lying on a bench, looking dreadfully pale, and in a state that appeared to be somewhere between sleeping and hallucinating.

The girl rushed to her friend's side, falling on her knees while pulling his face into her hands. Her own expression was rapidly donning and discarding emotions; masks of anger, nausea, and fear emerging from her delicate face, as she shouted at him, "Axel, thank God! Where the hell have you been? Why haven't you answered my calls? Don't tell me you've been here for three days strait! I was worried sick! Do you know what I had to go through to find you? Axel, I _scoured_ Hollow Bastion. I searched every sickeningly miniscule crevice in hopes of… Axel?"

The older boy, though smiling up at her, was crying. Namine stuttered, unsure of how to comfort him or, to be frank, what was wrong.

"He's not coming, Nam" Axel managed to force out. His voice sounded dry and cracked, probably a result of dehydration. And it tore Namine's heart apart to hear her big brother figure sound so… hurt. Axel reached up a weak hand and rubbed the petite girl's cheek before continuing, "I thought… maybe, you might be him. But I get it now. He's not coming…"

Namine inwardly questioned Axel's sanity. Anyone who'd known Axel over the past week or so knew about Roxas. But his best friend couldn't fathom why he was so attached to the boy. And she presumed that his roommate couldn't either. What the hell had happened between them? Inwardly she remembered what Vexen had told her about the Schizophrenia. Maybe Roxas had manipulated Axel? Either way, her worries became increasingly concerned with his physical health over his broken heart as she noticed just how famished and malnourished he looked. It was way too obvious that he hadn't eaten, drank, or had much sleep, if any, for the past three days.

After a brief sigh to calm her thoughts, Namine took one of Axel's much larger hands into both of her smaller ones and looked him in the eye, waiting to see her sober look unlock his comprehension. When she had his attention to an extent that satisfied her, the girl began slowly and carefully, like when telling a patient's family that Jane Doe didn't survive the operation. Hopefully the boy's reaction wouldn't be that bad, but in his current state of mind for all she knew he could have a worsened reaction.

Thoughts aside, she pushed forward, "Axel. I have some information for you. Important information. I need you to listen carefully, and promise me that you won't jump to any rash conclusions." She paused, and Axel's green eyes, which Namine noticed were uncharacteristically dull, nodded solemnly.

The girl's voice was quiet and kind as she continued, "You're dehydrated, and have been in the sun too long. We need to get you home and put you on an IV soon before you go into shock," she gave him a quick once-over and raised an eyebrow suspiciously, "and then you need some serious recovery time." Axel opened his mouth to speak, but Namine cut him off, "But I think I should tell you this first, because you'll probably get angry with me if I don't," Axel's eyes looked a bit lost. The petite girl let her bangs fall into her eyes as she looked down, and didn't bother to fix them when she met his gaze again, "and I don't want you to be mad at me." The pleading in her eyes would have made him feel guilty if he wasn't otherwise mentally preoccupied. Namine inhaled deeply, giving herself time to take in the startling presence in Axel's gaze. If it wasn't for the fact that she didn't have much time before the boy left town, Namine would probably have held off on telling him anything regarding Roxas, but the clock was ticking if they ever wanted to see him again.

She resumed from her pause as abruptly as she had started, "Axel, Roxas is sick. Very sick," Axel frowned, but she continued before he could question her, "He's a schizophrenic, Axel; A very dangerous one! We got the test results back this morning and the sedative they used on him was home-made and specifically designed to knock him out fast, and for a long period of time. Namely, before he could hurt anyone, including himself." Namine had lost her courage in the middle of the explanation. She was staring at a rather fascinating piece of grass under the bench Axel was laying on when she felt him shift his weight and sit up. The girl glanced up at him, but Axel wasn't looking at her anymore, he was staring blankly, with a hint of rage under the surface, at the sky ahead of them.

"Namine?" he asked calmly, without looking at her.

Namine shook her head roughly, sending her blonde hair flying, "Axel that's not it! He's leaving tonight. He stopped by Cloud 9 to apologize for that night he got drugged, and told them he wasn't planning on coming back."

Axel's gaze ignited as his vision snapped down to Namine. She didn't understand it. Why, after barely a week of knowing this kid, could he be so easily excited over him? When did he become this attached?

Suddenly though, he smiled. It was a sad smile, but she appreciated the effort. "Namine, I'm going to find Roxas. Don't worry about me, I'll pick up some food and water on the way." He knelt down next to her, and bent over to kiss her cheek. "I don't know about schizophrenia, but that kid's had a hard life; right now, I think I'm the only one who can help him. Can you understand that?"

She nodded silently. He gave her a familiar smirk, with an unfamiliar hint of guilt in it. The mischievous gleam that an 18 year old boy should have in their eye was replaced by pain older than she could imagine him having. Without another word, Axel left her sitting there in the park. She didn't understand it, but that look seemed eerily familiar, as if she'd seen it in another life time.

She got a sudden flash in her mind, like an odd mix between a memory and a vision, of a girl. Her short auburn hair and bright blue eyes seemed like someone she knew from a dream.

She rubbed her head with her hand, trying to see if maybe she'd gotten hit without realizing it. Something was strange, and there was more to Roxas and Axel then what any of them thought, or knew. Still, confused as a lost duckling, she opted for the 'Axel is a big boy and can take care of himself' card and began her long walk home. The most curious thing probably being that she had a sudden urge to buy a sketchbook… since when had she been an artist?

**Xxx**

Axel stumbled numbly down the hill into town. Three days without food, water, and running on minimal sleep had taken a serious toll on his ability to get from point A to point B. It took him awhile, and he looked deliriously intoxicated all the way there, but eventually he found a 711 that he could plunder to his heart's content; minus the stealing, swords, and really bad eggs.

Soon enough the redhead had somewhat restored his energy, thanks to some taquitos, two bottles of Gatorade, a banana, and the thought that his idiot of a crush was trying to walk out of his life forever. One might debate just who was the real idiot in this situation; the one who spent three days lying motionless on a bench or the one trying to run away from problems he seemingly couldn't control. Axel would have told anyone who outwardly disagreed at that moment that they had not one goddamn ounce of compassion in their being, but anyone was welcome to wonder so long as they kept it to themselves.

Regardless of people beyond the third wall and their opinions, Axel didn't hesitate to swallow the final portion of his remaining taquito whole and burst through the doors into the dimly lit hollow of a lounge. People were only just beginning to trickle in for whatever evening activities Cloud 9 would be hosting, so Axel didn't have any trouble spotting Cloud and company near the bar, about to clock in for the evening shift.

One-two-three steps towards them and Cloud had looked up, his face losing the glittering eye of a joke Zack had just told them, and his jaw tightening as he subtly, and unintentionally, took up a defensive stance. The change in their friend had drawn the attention of the dark haired man and Tifa to Axel as his long legs delivered him in front of them within a few strides.

Axel's eyes narrowed as he probed into Cloud's vision. The two men might as well have been the only people in the room, for the attention they gave to anyone else. The tension in the air was suffocating, and no one had even spoken yet.

"Where is Roxas?" demanded Axel.

Cloud had presumed that the smaller blonde would be this guy's reason for returning, and wasn't sure how to react to the redhead. He decided keeping his answers simple would serve everyone's best interest. "I don't know," he said plainly, watching carefully to gage Axel's reaction.

Rather than lashing out at such a useless answer, as anyone watching was beginning to suspect would be his next move, Axel's harsh façade cracked. His eyes began to look desperate. He shook as he inhaled, and ran a clammy hand through his hair as he directed his attention to the floorboards. "Please. I know he came here. Anything you can tell me would help."

Cloud blinked. Axel had stormed into their bar looking like he would tear the place apart short of getting what he wanted. Now he looked like… a kicked puppy. Only more desperate. The redhead was making frantic, nervous actions. He was scared.

Tifa was the first one to respond. Axel looked up as he felt a hand lightly grasp his shoulder. There was pity in her eyes. "When you guys came here a few nights ago, Roxas said he knew my grandmother. I called her the next day, and it turns out they're neighbors. I can give you his address if it would help."

Axel nodded quietly. He had an address. Honestly, he couldn't tell you what he'd thought Cloud and Tifa would be able to tell him when he came in. But an address was a fantastic start.

"Thank you," he mumbled, before turning to her with a smile.

**Xxxx**

Zack frowned. This situation was too weird for him. It was obvious that the kid they'd seen only a day or two prior had problems, but this guy didn't look much better. One moment he'd be furious, the next about to roll over and die, and now he looked… happy? Relieved?

While Tifa walked behind the bar to get a pen and paper, Cloud and Axel tailing her, Zack took a quick glance at Cloud. What would he do if Cloud disappeared one day? No note. No phone call. Best friends though they were, and engaged though Cloud may be, Zack still couldn't deny that he had… feelings… for Cloud. Feelings that went past something as simple friendship or brotherly love. But he knew it would fuck everyone over if at any point in time he decided to get down on one knee and confess, so he'd made peace with himself long ago and decided to sweep his feelings under a rug in his heart.

Looking at Axel he wondered, could he handle loosing Cloud? What would he do in that situation? No doubt he'd go looking for him and drag his stupid ass back to Cid and Tifa… but would he act as insane as Axel was? The redhead hugged Tifa, and thanked the couple immensely before dashing out the door in search of his friend. Zack took a few steps toward the bar, where Cloud was calling him over to help clean glasses.

The taller man pushed past the short door meant to keep customers out, and made his way next to Cloud, submitting himself to the habitual routine of grabbing a glass from the counter, drying it with the towel that hung from his apron, and turning to place it in the cabinet behind them.

"What's up?" asked Cloud, shuffling around the larger man to grab a new tray of freshly washed glasses and placing it on the counter before them. Tifa had left them to make rounds at the tables and take orders from early customers.

Zack shook his head slowly, "What do you mean, what's up? We're drying scotch glasses, like we always do before work."

Cloud slapped the back of Zack's head, drawing an annoyed grunt from his friend, who shot him a glare. Cloud frowned, and explained, now that he had the other man's attention, "I'm your best friend. I can _smell_ when you're thinking too hard."

Zack's eyes widened sarcastically, but his expression remained bored, "You can _smell_ when I'm _thinking_?" he exclaimed, waving his towel in the air for emphasis before leaning back against the bar to dry a glass one-handed, "Are you dumb?"

Cloud smirked, "You thinking about Axel and the kid?" he picked up another glass and began to work his towel inside of it.

Zack started to do the same, only with much less eloquence than Cloud. But he didn't have to worry about Cid biting his ass for doing a lazy job drying shot glasses, and he liked to take advantage of that pleasant fact. Punishment rained down by the boss-man would be rained down onto Cloud. This was law.

Rolling his eyes, Zack turned towards the blonde and waved a hand demonstratively, "I don't get it. Roxas has issues. That's obvious. Either he's in deep shit, like Al Capone's trying to cap him shit, or he's dangerous in one way or another and they want to lock him up. Meanwhile Axel's just… fucking bipolar. That dude's almost weirder than the poor kid!" He raised his towel hand to pinch the bridge of his nose in frustration. He didn't like complicated things. Thinking too hard gave him headaches.

Cloud chuckled, sounding only slightly creepy as his tenor voice played off the practice previously only known to be mastered by eight year old girls. Zack liked the sound though, and it made him smile a bit. His muscles relaxed, and he sighed with relief… unsure of what exactly he was relieved of but thankful for the gesture none the less.

"Its love," the blonde answered.

Zack looked at him dumbly, "Love?"

Cloud smirked, "You call them crazy, but when you think about it, love can make people do some pretty insane things."

Zack grimaced, "Like changing moods every twelve seconds?"

Cloud's dark blue eyes gave him a knowing look, "Like bottling up your feelings for years and assuming if no one notices then everyone can go on living uncomplicated lives."

Zack froze. That relaxed feeling he was enjoying? Gone. Just like that. Cloud could do that to him; change his emotions at the moment in extreme ways. But this was… unexpected to say the least.

The brunette narrowed his eyes, deciding angry felt better than startled, and shot Cloud a glare that clearly said to shut the fuck up, "I don't know what you're talking about."

Cloud gave the man a glare to rival his own, "Of course you do. You know exactly what and who I'm talking about. It's too bad that person was too stupid to think that maybe, just MAYBE, his feelings could be reciprocated. But instead of asking, like a normal person, he just went and decided on his own how the other person MUST feel!"

Zack roughly put the glass he was holding onto the counter, taking an aggressive step towards Cloud. Distantly he thanked whatever god there was that Tifa was on the other side of the room, and people were too busy trying to find places to sit to worry about the scuffle going on behind the bar. His dark eyes flashed with rage as he closed the distance between himself and his friend, but Cloud refused to be intimidated by the inches Zack had on him, both in height and in sheer bulk.

The larger man leaned in close enough that to other people saw, it would probably look like he was whispering a secret, "If you've known for so long, then why propose to Tifa? Why not say something?" His voice was quiet, but fiery with anger and, underneath, a bit of hurt. Somewhere in the last few sentences, the anger he'd used to cover up his shock had molded into genuine frustration. If Cloud had known, he could have done something. Zack was the one who didn't know. He wasn't wrong. He'd put himself aside for Cloud's best interest; whatever problems the blonde had with that were his own fault.

Cloud replied quietly, looking over Zack's shoulder into nothing. "I didn't know. You just told me."

Zack stiffened. He tried to step back, away from Cloud, but the smaller man gripped his arm, the one hidden from view by their bodies, and he had a surprisingly strong grasp. Zack's voice was pleading now, almost scared, "Please, Cloud, let me go. You shouldn't have pushed this. I need to get away from you."

Cloud ignored his pleas and relented only enough so that he could see Zack's face. The man's eyes were moving, constantly; searching frantically for something safe, some rock to hide under. Cloud had just flipped over his metaphorical rug, and was forcing him to stare at the mess beneath it. It showed on his face.

But as Zack searched Cloud's face, he only dug himself deeper into confusion. Cloud knew now. He'd just told him. What could he do? What did Cloud want him to do? He looked into the dark blue eyes that he'd loved for so long, and came out with nothing. Cloud's face told him nothing.

The blonde watched as, without a sound, a single tear began to make its way down Zack's cheek. "Please," he begged, his voice a whisper.

Cloud knew now. He'd suspected since before he could remember and, though he wasn't sure why, he'd chosen to ignore it until now. He'd made a life for himself, assuming that whatever suspicions he had were just in his head. But now…

He couldn't remember seeing Zack cry. Even when they were in grade school. But he couldn't remember ever kissing Zack either. And that's exactly what he did.

Zack's eyes widened as Cloud pressed his lips to Zack's. It was gentle, comforting; but just like anything Cloud did, it was sure of itself and without hesitation. Zack let his eyes drift shut as he raised a hand behind the blonde's haid, and pressed into the kiss. If this was Cloud's answer, it would be his only answer.

Zack held the blonde closer to him, drawing his fist around the soft hair and deepening the kiss. He needed Cloud, and Cloud seemed to reciprocate the need as the space between them evaporated.

"Jesus, boys, talk about unprofessional!"

The two men practically fell apart as they stared in shock at Tifa, who they'd momentarily forgotten about, along with everyone else in the room. Cloud blinked, "Hey Tifa."

Tifa smiled down sweetly, "Hi Cloud." It wasn't a genuine sweet though. To those who knew Tifa, it was her way of making fun of you before she kicked the living shit out of you. Tifa was pissed. Rightfully so, but that just made the situation even more horrifying.

Zack coughed a bit, and swallowed. Hard. His eyes flicked nervously from Tifa to Cloud. The latter offering nothing but reassurance in their shared fear of the monster Tifa would become momentarily. He just hoped that there wouldn't be any permanent damages done during the impending beating.

Cloud spoke first; he had the decency to look slightly ashamed as he rubbed a hand behind his neck, "Uhhh, sorry for kissing Zack, but I think we're both gay for each other."

Zack blinked, "Yeah. You're dumb."

Cloud glared, "Shut up! It's the truth! Not like we can tell her that we weren't just making out right in front of her!"

Zack opened his mouth to retort, but was cut off by Tifa laughing hysterically.

Both boys looked at her, Cloud with his blue eyes wide and Zack with a stupid expression, waiting for her to yell 'ha! You fell for it!' and castrate the both of them.

But when she opened her eyes, using one hand to wipe away the tears, she sighed pleasantly and placed her hands on her hips in a familiar fashion, smirking at the two men before her. "You're both stupid."

Cloud and Zack tilted their heads almost identically, wondering if she would look any less pleased from a different angle.

Tifa grinned, "Cid pushed me to date Cloud. He thought it would make Zack jealous, so you two would finally get together."

Zack's palm made audible contact with his face. Cloud's brow furrowed in confusion. "But I proposed to you. What if we'd gotten married? Weren't you supposed to be in love with me?"

Tifa gave him a displeased look, "Weren't you supposed to be in love with ME? Jesus, Cloud, I've known you were gay since we were sixteen and you told me you didn't want to fuck me because you didn't want our relationship to be sexual." Zack blinked slowly before turning to ask Cloud if that was true, but Tifa continued, "I asked Cid for advice, since he'd been the one who wanted me to confess to Cloud in the first place, and he told me all about your sandbox love for Zack here. So then I watched, I saw, and just when Cid wanted to give up and scrap the whole operation, seeing how it seemingly backfired, I bet him that you two would be able to see through a fake relationship and get together anyway." Cloud looked stupefied. Zack looked nauseous. Tina was beaming as she added, "Cid owes me soooo much money! I can't wait to see the look on his face!" There was a gleam in her eye that made the two men shiver. Fact: women are scary.

After a moment to soak it all in, Zack grumbled, "I should've known something like this would happen. It fits you two so well." He paused for a beat before giving a shocked look to Tifa, "Wait. Cloud's been in love with me. Since kindergarten. And you told me NOTHING."

Cloud continued to give Tifa a questioning look, both of them ignoring Zack's comment. "But aren't you, I don't know, heartbroken or something? I mean, you couldn't possibly have stayed with me that long without any feelings."

Tifa gave Cloud a sad smile, "It's okay; I may have been head over heels for you in the beginning, back when we were still in high school, but the truth is simply that I've known this would happen for so long that I was able to come to terms with it years ago." Leaning over the bar counter, she placed her hand on his cheek gently, "I love you Cloud. But I haven't been IN love with you for quite some time. Right now I just want what's best for you."

Zack stared dumbfounded at the heart-warming interaction. "Bullshit! You placed a bet with Cid that we'd get together, and then waited it out. FOR YEARS. Where the hell is Cloud's best interest in that?"

"Thanks Tifa," Cloud smirked, and kissed her on the cheek, before turning to Zack and leaning close enough to whisper so that Tifa wouldn't hear, "Dumbass, her being a total self-indulging bitch over the last eight or so years completely trumps her having the wrath of a normal ex-fiancé any day. So just shut the fuck up and accept it before she gets mad at you!"

Zack silently 'oh' -ed . Now he got it. He grinned and nodded, drawing a pleased smirk from Cloud.

"Of course, that doesn't mean I'm not a bit annoyed. I mean, I had to wait an _awfully_ long time."

The two men turned, dreading what would be waiting in place of the girl that had just let them get off nearly Scotts-free. Tifa had an evil smile on her face.

"Payback is in order. You can start now. I'm taking the night off, full pay. You two get to work my shift for me. I'll be vacationing in Destiny Islands for the next week or so; don't try to call me."

Zack gritted his teeth, "You bitch! You KNOW how hard this place is to work with just three people, let alone two! And how come you get paid? Won't Cid care?"

Tifa tapped her chin thoughtfully, "Well, consider it a courtesy. You two will probably want some alone time now that you've discovered your feelings for each other. I don't want to be around to walk in on you guys getting nasty in the storage room or something." Zack's jaw dropped, Cloud, though his face stayed blank, had a pink hue to his cheeks that was previously absent. Her look turned from innocent to malicious in the blink of an eye, and her tone of voice dropped to a dangerous threat, "As for the workload; I don't care how you get it done. But if Cid finds out I'm gone, I'll just tell him about this little incident of Cloud ravaging Zack while on the job in public. Along with whatever seething punishment he'd dish for his favorite nephew, I'm sure I could arrange to have both your paychecks cut to supplement my own, as payment for the mental scarring I had to endure watching my fiancé and his best friend make out."

If Tifa had pixie dust, she'd be flying. Even if she looked ready to kill, the petite brunette radiated the glee that her thoughts made her feel, and it was turning over both Cloud and Zack's stomachs. She had them trapped, and would, for a long time. She was like a Pomeranian. Small, adorable, fun to cuddle, and the root of all fucking evil.

Zack and Cloud stared silently as their tyrant of a friend gracefully leapt over the bar and to hang up her apron, grabbing her purse and jacket, and slipping on some dark designer sunglasses. She looked to the both of them, smirking at the imagery of their faces pressed to the floor under her thumb, and walked through the employee's door, headed for the exit.

Zack let out a breath he hadn't been consciously holding. Turning to Cloud, he asked, "You were going to marry THAT?"

Cloud shrugged and picked up a glass. Tifa knew him better than just about anyone. He'd never been between her crosshairs before, but he'd known just as well, if not better, than Zack that she only got bat-shit psycho on someone when the person deserved it. Tifa was, on some level, hurt that she'd never really have Cloud's heart. But her way of dealing with it would be to sip margaritas on a beach and let overly tan hunks rub sunscreen on her back. She was probably dialing up Yuffie at the moment and telling her to get the fuck out of her job and come with Tifa on another adventure. He sighed. If this was the price Cloud would pay to make Tifa happy in the long term, he'd do it without complaint. Besides, it could've been a lot worse. After being in a relationship with someone for as long as he'd been with Tifa, they tend to know embarrassing things about you.

Tifa turned on her heel, a step before the threshold, and lifted her sunglasses suspiciously. Cloud gulped. Maybe he'd spoken too soon. "I almost forgot," Tifa called, from the door. That smile was back. Sweet. But so much evil was lying underneath. "Zack? Do be careful with Cloud. He's still a virgin. Wanted to wait until marriage and all that jazz. Use extra lube!" she winked, "See you in a week!"

Cloud wasn't blushing. His skin had abandoned its naturally pale tone for a completely different pigment. He was scarlet. And he was furious. To hell with deserving his punishment, this was humiliating. Cloud jumped over the bar and took one threatening step in his ex-fiancé's direction. "Ha! You're one to talk! I know for a fact that you were a virgin when we started dating! It's not like you have any experience either, even though you like to walk around with your nose up at everyone else!" His eyes were stormy with competition, and he mentally patted himself on the back. He hadn't delivered an insult that would bring her to her knees with shame, but he had wanted to get even. Nothing more. If they were both embarrassed, or if he felt better about being embarrassed, he could live.

Zack watched them quietly. He was beginning to see why Cloud and Tifa had been able to stay together for so long. Friendship aside, some of their most horrific qualities were ones they had in common. Where Tifa liked to rein as queen and dominate everything, Cloud forced everyone to stay equal or beneath him. If Tifa pushed, he'd push back, but only enough to level the playing field. And as long as he wasn't in any way beneath her, he'd let her do as she pleased. Intrigued as he was, Zack wondered if he should be worried about what this would mean with him and Cloud in the long run? But, as with most things, he chose to shrug it off and deal with it later.

Tifa sighed, as if disappointed with Cloud's response. Cloud stiffened, wondering what the hell Tifa was thinking. When she looked up, it was a look of delight, not resign, that she gave Cloud. And with that one look, Cloud knew he should have simply let her go. But no, he had to get back at her. Stupid Cloud. Tifa was on the same playing field as Cid now, and he hadn't realized it; the one where you just shut up and do what they say, hoping they'll choose to be nice.

The brunette batted her eyelashes playfully, "Sorry Cloud, but once it all became about the bet I had a bit of fun on the side. Its technically not cheating if you know your boyfriend is going to come out of the closet anyway, right? Oh well, I'll buy you ice cream and we'll watch Ten Things I Hate About You when I get back. Then we'll go shopping for new curtains. But first, I'm going to get wasted. Have fun working my shift!"

And with that, Tifa was gone. There were eight customers in the room. All of which were staring at Cloud. No one said anything for a few minutes. Eventually the people in the tables went back to their menus and conversations, deciding the show was over.

Cloud had surrendered his pride. It didn't exist anymore. That was okay with him, as long as he could just forget the previous conversation; which wasn't likely considering the amused smirk on Zack's face as he made his way back behind the bar, picking up a glass and his towel.

"So you're a virgin?" Zack asked, nonchalantly. Cloud winced, a blush rising to his cheeks once again.

His eyes, however, were hard and emotionless. He didn't look at Zack as he replied, "Not. A. Word."

Zack grinned as he picked up a glass, beginning to wipe, and let only a single word slip. "Owned."

Cloud's inner monologue: 'Note to self. Women are Evil.'

**Talk about ADD. I wasn't even planning on having this be a pairing. Look back at chapter 5! ZERO foreshadowing! But, it happened. And I love it. Hope you do too. Review plz! More reviews = more of my attention put towards writing the next chapter = sooner updates! Much luv to all my readers ;D**

**P.S. Tifa in this chapter was written for a friend of mine. I don't even think she reads this fic, but if she ever does, I'm sure she'll appreciate it. Vger, this was for you!  
**


	11. Pain

**Sorry Sorry Sorry! I know its been freaking FOREVER since I last updated, but I've been focused on finishing the other fic that I'm working on. Its not done yet, but I figured it was time to give the readers of this story a sign that I'm still alive, I still love you all for sticking around, and that I WILL finish this, in due time. I'm going to go back to trying to juggle the two fics, so expect to see more updates in the near future!**

**WARNING: This chapter contains rape. If you don't like, don't read, though it's an admittedly large portion of this chapter. Better than nothing though, right? Haha, hope this doesn't turn to many people away.**

Axel practically flew up the unfamiliar steps of the antique apartment building. Some of the tenants on their way to or from their quarters gave him odd looks, but he ignored them, throwing himself up the last of the steps to Roxas' floor and double-checking the now dilapidated piece of paper in his sweaty palm. Running up to the door with the 13 on it, Axel started hammering his fist into it.

"Roxas! Open the fuck up right NOW! Its Axel!" out of breath, the redhead continued to hammer for a minute strait, hand starting to cramp up. One by one, neighboring tenants opened their doors and peered out to see where all the commotion was coming from. Gritting his teeth, Axel sucked in a breath and shouted, loud as he could, "God dammit, let me in you stupid kid! I'm trying to help you!"

"Is Roxas in trouble?" came a small voice. Axel swiveled and his eyes widened to match those of the little old woman standing before him, face taught with concern. "I have a spare key if you need to get in."

Axel nodded, chest heaving from exhaustion. The way he'd spent his past few days hadn't exactly put him in the best shape to run across town and shout at the top of his lungs. The woman didn't waste any time shuffling in the way little old ladies do back into her apartment. The strange tenants slowly receded into their doors like waters of a tide going back out to sea. It wasn't long before who Axel could only guess was Ms. Lockheart returned with the spare key to Roxas' apartment.

Taking the key gingerly, he jumped when the woman's free hand grasped the his wrist. Axel glanced at her, confusion spread across his face, and saw her own face was stern, but streaked with dread. "Roxas is a good boy, but he needs help. I've done my best to keep an eye on him, but I'm afraid that task is out of my qualifications to handle," the woman began to weep, tears running down her creased face, "Please do what I couldn't, help that poor boy. Make sure he's okay."

Axel placed a hand on her shoulder, eyes reassuring his words, "I'm going to find him, and then I'm going to make sure that nothing can ever hurt him again." The woman nodded silently, pulling a handkerchief from one of the infinite folds of fabric in her out-of-date clothes.

The tall boy stood and turned back to the door, the ugly, black numbers seemed like a taunt to him. Without delay, he unlocked the door and threw it open, stepping inside and letting the door fall shut behind him.

The first thing the redhead noticed was that it was dark. The lights weren't on, and when he flipped the switch near the door nothing happened. The apartment was small. A kitchenette in one corner of the room, a bed in the opposite, a table and chairs off to the side, and then a door that lead into what he could only assume was the bathroom. Roxas wasn't in any of the visible parts of the room, so Axel made for the last.

His steps were muted by the cheap carpet as he made his way to the bathroom door. Upon reaching it, he turned the handle, holding his breath, and opened it. There was a thud though, and the door stuck on something when it was only about half open. Axel panicked. Flashes from episodes of various crime-investigating TV shows and murder movies flew through his mind and all he could think was that Roxas must be nothing more than a dead body on the floor inside the bathroom.

Climbing onto the small portion of revealed counter so that he could get around the door, Axel hopped down the other side and looked around. There was no Roxas to be seen, but on the floor… the boy almost couldn't understand what it was. Axel bent down, slowly, and lifted the towel that had been blocking the door. It was large, thick and white, or had once been white, but was now various shades of brown as it had been stained with dry blood. Axel reeled.

Stumbling, Axel barely got his head in front of the toilet before he vomited into the ceramic basin, stomach heaving at the smell of old blood and from being both mentally and physically exhausted over the past three days. When his insides were empty, he flushed the toilet and wiped his mouth with the back of his arm. Sometime while he was dumping bile he'd discarded the towel, and he left it where it lay on the floor, quietly making his way back into the main apartment.

As he rounded the door and stepped out into the main room, Axel heard noise at the door. He froze, unable to think of anything else to do but wait, and the door opened to reveal none other than the small blonde he'd been looking for!

"Roxas!" Axel gasped, voice raspy from puking.

The paper sack the smaller boy had been holding fell to the floor as the door swung shut freely behind him. He stared for a moment before responding, "A-Axel? Is that you?"

Axel felt a hot tear make its way down his face. Tripping over himself, he clumsily made his way to the boy and threw himself on the smaller teen, sobbing from exhaustion. Roxas stiffened. They remained like this for awhile until Axel could stop crying and lifted his head from the blonde's shoulder. "God, I've been so worried about you…"

Roxas didn't look at him. He'd been staring at the bathroom door, where he'd first seen Axel, since he'd stopped moving. Almost whispering he said, "You shouldn't be here."

Axel frowned, hands gripping Roxas' shoulders and bending forward to force the sky-blues to look him in the eye. "Roxas, look at me, I'm here to help. Roxas, please just… Rox, what the fuck happened to you?" the redhead raised a gentle finger to the gashes on Roxas' head and the welts on his face. From across the room and without lights he hadn't seen them, but they only looked a couple days old… and he most certainly didn't have them the last time Axel had seen the boy.

Voice lowering venomously, Axel growled, "Who did this? Roxas, tell me who the fuck did this. I'll fucking kill them."

Roxas' eyes snapped to Axel's and narrowed into a heated glare. "Don't touch me," he commanded. Axel faltered, stepping back from Roxas as his eyes widened in confusion.

"Roxas, what's wrong? Just let me help you-"

Roxas interrupted, shaking his head violently as he shrieked, "Why couldn't you just leave me? Now he'll find me! He'll do terrible things to me, all because you had to come and find me! I hate you! I fucking hate you!" Roxas began to scream wordlessly as he collapsed onto his knees, hands tugging at his golden locks furiously.

Axel fell to the floor beside Roxas, snatching his hands and pulling them down to the boy's sides. "Roxas, who will find you? Tell me and I'll take you away from them. All you have to do is let me help you!"

Roxas looked up, distantly, eyes wide and a terrified expression on his face. "Too late. He's already here."

Axel frowned, looking behind him, where Roxas was staring, and didn't see anything, "Roxas, nothings there-"

A wordless scream tore itself from Roxas' mouth as he threw his body backwards against the door, reopening one of his wounds and causing blood to run down the back of his neck. Axel was shouting at him to stop, but he couldn't. He had to get away, he had to run. "God, I'm so sorry," whispered Roxas, over and over like a scary mantra, "Saix, please, don't hurt me!"

Axel tried to get a hold on Roxas, but the boy shrieked and fought, slapping Axel hard enough to leave a mark and bolting to the bathroom. Axel was on his tail, "Roxas, please, just listen to me!" When the door was thrown shut in his face.

XXX

Roxas was kneeling in a corner of the bathroom, pressed as far into it as he could pack his small frame. He started to rock back and forth, humming a lullaby to himself.

"Roxas, come out! Please! You need help!" called Axel from outside the room. Help? Of course he needed help! But he needed to be safe more. He needed to not feel the pain.

_Well well well, Roxas has been a bad boy._

Roxas froze, color and warmth draining from his body, hairs rising on his skin. "Oh God, Please no."

"Roxas? What's wrong? Let me in!" Axel's voice called, but Roxas could barely hear it. He was staring up at the tall figure before him. The man with the long blue hair, stone cold eyes, and an X shaped scare across his face.

_Did you miss me, love?_ Saix cooed.

Roxas started to tremble, whimpering unintentionally now and then. Axel was still yelling and banging on the door, but he couldn't hear it.

Saix grinned cruelly. _Well then, let's cut the chit-chat and get started, eh? Just like good old times._

The screams tore themselves from his throat. Long, wordless and ragged as the large man in the long black cloak made his way towards Roxas.

"GET AWAY!" he wailed, tears streaming down his face. "GET AWAY!"

Saix clicked his tongue, closing the gap between them and grabbing the boy by the arm, practically lifting him into the air with one hand. Roxas, throat raw from screaming, had begun sobbing the way only a truly fractured mind can allow a person to sob. There was no dignity in it, just paralyzingly painful terror.

The blue-haired man suddenly threw Roxas towards the counter as if he were tossing away a toy; the petite boy smashed the glass mirror with his body and fell bleeding to the floor in a crumpled heap. The boy peered up between bloodstained locks of hair to see Saix unzipping his cloak. There was nothing on underneath it. Nothing to cover up the scars across the man's chest, the angry white lines that streaked across his shaped torso and below. Numb, and somewhat accepting of his impending fate, Roxas sat unmoving, fully aware that he couldn't stop what would happen now.

Xemnas' number two licked his lips, quick and unintentional. He was excited by the blood, but as he unzipped the rest of the cloak and removed it Roxas saw he wasn't nearly excited enough. The man took a step forward, gingerly holding himself out as an offering, _behave and I'll have my way with you. Misbehave and I'll have my way with you, torture you, and then watch you do it all to someone else._ He said the words as if he were a pleasant greeting to the boy, which made them all the more chilling and all the more real.

It almost seemed as if Roxas' body moved of its own accord. He crawled forward, one hand gently grasping Saix' member and the other reaching up to wrap around the man for support until he situated himself. Slowly, he slid his hand from the base up the shaft. This motion he repeated, lowering his head and placing the tip in his mouth. Tightening his grip slightly, Roxas pulled outward in a tugging motion, feeling the skin slide with him as his mouth followed, using his lips to create suction and his tongue to tease the head.

Saix moaned, placing a hand on the back of Roxas head, fingers running through his hair until they reached the nape of his neck where they fisted around his locks, pulling harshly and earning a wine from Roxas as the injury on the back of his head was pulled.

The taller man began thrusting into Roxas' mouth, cock too large for him to fit all the way, but the blonde didn't dare stop the blue-haired demon either. Chocking, he felt him force his way into his throat and pull out over and over again, barely giving him enough time to breath.

When he was good and hard, Saix pulled out of the small blonde's mouth. Roxas gasped for air and wheezed. God he hated this.

_Take off your clothes_ Saix instructed. Roxas gingerly slipped his fingers under the hem of his shirt and lifted it over his head, letting it drop to the floor. Next he undid the top button of his jeans, slipping his boxers off with them until he sat naked on his bathroom floor. His body was lean, boyish, and Saix ravished it with his eyes.

_Now I want you to make yourself come. I'm going to do things to try and stop you, and we'll see how far you get._ Roxas whimpered, but obediently complied. He lowered a hand to his own member, blonde hair trailing down his stomach to the bottom of the shaft. Slowly he started to stroke himself, closing his eyes to try and help block out whatever Saix was about to do to him.

He started to speed up, not feeling any pain, and beginning to wonder if the other man would do anything after all. He was growing hard in his hands as the blood rushed down, and all he could think of was one face. The one with piercing green eyes and strange face tattoos. It wasn't long before he was pumping his cock, moaning with the thoughts of Axel taking him instead of the curse of a man he was with. But pain made the good thoughts shatter. Fire, burning his flesh, seared his back. Saix cackled maniacally as Roxas cried out; but the blonde kept going. Axel, he thought, over and over. If he could focus on that he could get through this.

Roxas hissed at a deep cut on his inner thigh. He could feel the heat of Saix' breath on his face as he jerked his hand quickly, bringing his second underneath to rub himself.

Remembering the evening he met Axel, kissing him on the bench, and he didn't even feel the next cut to his face. Roxas' back arched. His breath was ragged and staggered as his eyelashes fluttered. He could feel the warmth beginning to grow in him until finally it overflowed, crashing into him as he cried out, toes curling and body falling to the linoleum, out of breath and aching with pleasure. Looking down, he saw white cum on his hand and wiped it on the blood-stained towel next to him.

Saix was smirking, _you've gotten better. Well then, let's see if you can treat me as well as you treat yourself._

Roxas closed his eyes and bit his lip as he felt a large hand on his shoulder, and another lifting his legs up. A finger prodded at his hole, and Roxas stifled what he wasn't sure would have been another sob or a moan. It went in, and soon another, and another until finally Roxas cried out as Saix plunged his cock into Roxas, drilling it in forcefully until he was filling him as far as he could. Eyes open, the blonde stared up at the man above him, knees next to his head, and gasped as Saix pulled out slowly, only to slam himself back inside with a force that made Roxas' bones shake. Out of breath, Roxas watched as the man above him rose and fell, one hand remaining on the boy's shoulder and the other holding up his leg. He drew himself out, and plunged himself in over and over again, speed gradually increasing until even the blue-haired man's breaths were ragged.

Roxas closed his eyes. If he just focused on feeling he could enjoy parts of this. Saix continued to ride him, hips digging into Roxas' ass as he thrust and thrust, grunting at the effort. Roxas could feel the muscle in the man's thigh rub against him, and jumped as the hand on his leg met his own cock, already hard again from the stimulation.

Saix moaned, _Damn, boy, if only you'd just let me fuck you before. I didn't think it could be this… AH… good. _

Roxas didn't say anything back, but felt his spine arch and lift as Saix tugged on him, pulling in rhythm as he shoved himself deep into Roxas. Pace quickening, Roxas couldn't hold back his own moans of pleasure, the same warmth from before bubbling up inside him as Saix pumped faster and faster until they both came.

Roxas lay panting and Saix on top of him. They remained like that for what felt like several minutes before the blonde wondered what Axel must think of him now. It was quiet on the other side of the door.

Saix lifted himself and Roxas began to follow, but promptly received a slap that sent his face colliding with the floor. He looked up, dizzy but barely able to make out Saix' face; he was grinning menacingly. _We aren't done here._

He pulled Roxas up with him and threw him into the corner with the toilet, kicking him in the side, and Roxas coughed, blood from his lips dripping down his chin. The man came forward and threw Roxas face-down over the edge of the tub. Without warning, he shoved himself inside Roxas and the boy screamed. This was different from the last time. Roxas could feel the rips and tears inside himself and the blood starting to well out of his ass, but no matter how much he cried stop, or please, Saix would just laugh. The blue haired demon rode Roxas until he came again, throwing the used, beaten and bloody body into the tub, and Roxas passed out, unable to recall why he'd thought for even a second that he could feel good without consequences.

XXX

With a final kick Axel broke down the door to the bathroom and ran in to find a shattered mirror, blood all over the room, and an unconscious Roxas in the bathtub. Gently, he wrapped the boy in a clean towel and carried him to his bed. From there he called Namine to pick them up and take them to his own house. Once there, he tucked Roxas once again into his own bed, trusting Namine to dress the wounds, and pulled the business card he'd received three days ago from his wallet.

Dialing the numbers, he only had to listen to the line ring twice before there was an answer, "Zexion here, how may I help you?

"This is Axel. I found Roxas, and I need your help."

**YAAY! Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Anyway, something I just noticed and want to point out before someone else does and makes me seem like an ass, Is that I had Cloud pinned as Roxas' dad and paired with Leon in chapter one, and then in the last chapter I had him completely unrelated to Roxas and paired with Zack. Its pretty fail, but no one's pointed it out to me yet, so I'm hoping it's a mistake I can ignore XD. R&R plz. And as always, thanks for reading!**


	12. BackStory

**I LIVE! Haha, you're probably all used to my sporadic updates by now, but I apologize nonetheless. Was surprised with a trip to Italy, gone for a while, and now I'm back. OHOHO. This fic is coming to a close T_T but I still have a couple chapters left to pump out of it. So, hopefully you all enjoy! **

Zexion stood from where he'd been kneeling over the unconscious boy, stethoscope in hand. Axel tapped his foot nervously, arms crossed over his chest in a subconscious show of his discomfort at the other doctor's presence. There was a sharp welt on the redhead's face where he'd been slapped, but he continued to refuse the ice pack Namine offered.

The shorter man turned to look Axel, and when their eyes met, Axel's shoulders lost a touch of tension. Zexion's eyes were serious, but compassion and understanding was there, underneath the stoic layers. After all, hadn't he said he'd been 'treating' Roxas for years? He of all people would be able to relate to what Axel was feeling… almost.

Wordlessly, the petite man turned and started rummaging through his bag. After a long moment he pulled out a file, one of those manila folders that belongs in some sort of a cabinet. It was worn around the edges, stained innumerable times by incomprehensible substances, and filled to the point that a rubber band had to be wrapped around it and hold it together, lest it burst and its contents become strewn all over the place.

Axel's eyes narrowed as, in bold black letters, he spotted Roxas' name on the side. Zexion looked at him, hesitated for half a moment, then stood and offered out the file. Axel took it. "I can't convince him he needs help. He doesn't trust me."

Namine, who'd been standing near Axel and watching the exchange, stepped forward and took the file, gingerly. "My boss called back. He said Roxas was a schizophrenic. Is that true?" her eyes were turned toward Zexion, wide and pleading. She desperately wanted anything else to be true. Abusive family, getting locked into a gang-like situation, drug abuse, any of these they could fix… but a mental problem? They were truly helpless if this was the case.

Axel stiffened at the question, and Zexion noticed. He stood again, slowly, as if not to scare the pair off. He glanced gingerly to the boy in the bed. "I'm sorry… I tried to tell Axel but… Well, I know it can be hard to comprehend." Axel grit his teeth and stepped forward, almost violently so, and gripped Zexion's shirt, drawing his face close so they were barely an inch apart.

"This Kid," he gestured to Roxas pointedly, "Is more than just a goddamned patient. I don't care if he's broken beyond fixing." Axel threw Zexion to the ground rather roughly and seemed to growl as he spoke, "If all you see is a problem where pumping him with sedatives will make things better, then fuck you, and whatever knowledge you have on the subject."

Rubbing his butt where he fell, Zexion stood for a third time, sighing in exasperation, "And if you want to just let him run around town, beating himself to the brink of suicide, and living in absolute fear of an incomprehensible combination of memories and fantasy, then I will leave right now and you can try to make it better on your own!"

Axel's eyes widened. He stammered, not sure what to say, but the scathing look Zexion gave him was enough to shut him up. "You don't have the slightest idea what sort of pain and suffering this kid goes through every day or why. I've spent years with him and all he'll tell me is what the damaged part of his mind has convinced him to believe."

The redhead vaguely thought of the story Roxas had told him… Zexion pinched the bridge of his nose, "Come, let's go downstairs and talk. I'll explain as best as I can, and then it will be up to you to convince Roxas to come back to the institution. If he doesn't want to come, I can hardly make him, but it would be incredibly helpful if he was cooperative."

Axel nodded, and turned to head downstairs, taking the time to make a last lingering glance at Roxas, dressed in some of Axel's oversized sweatpants, his bandages were bloody and bruises a sickly purple, but all-around better than when he'd found the boy.

Once in the kitchen, Zexion pulled out a second file. Namine and Axel frowned in unison. This one had the name 'Belle' written on it. "This is the only patient we have on record to tell the same stories Roxas has told me, and I assume he's told you as well if you're really as close to him as you say."

Axel took the file gingerly and opened it, it was twice as large as Roxas' bursting folder, and as soon as he started flipping through the pile of information he could see why.

"Belle wasn't my patient. She was treated by a senior practitioner when I was interning. She stayed at our clinic for ten years, and my mentor tried everything to help her… but," Zexion's face went dark, and Axel froze as he flipped to the page that finished the Psychiatrist's sentence for him. Namine looked worriedly between the two of them.

"What?" the girl asked, voice straining from dread. "What happened?" she repeated. Without looking at her, Axel shut the file and mumbled something indeterminable under his breath. Namine frowned, "Speak louder, I can't hear you."

The redhead, eyes pointedly focused on the table and back painfully rigid, spoke clearly, "Go home, Nami. I'll call you when Roxas wakes up so you can check on him."

Namine hesitated. She wanted to help. Having a background in medicine, being Axel's best friend… these had to count for something, right?

Axel gritted his teeth and slammed his fist onto the table, causing the room to shake. Zexion and Namine both flinched, and Axel finally turned his head to give Namine a horrifyingly dark look. "Go home. Now."

Near tears, but too scared to cry, Namine nodded her understanding, grabbed her medical bag, and left. The moment the door closed, Axel seemed to crumple in on himself. He shook everywhere, and Zexion waited patiently for a long moment before saying, "So now you see why I'm so desperate to sedate him and get him back to the institution."

Axel nodded, "Because the Belle case was never solved. She killed herself before they could cure her."

XXX

Axel returned from the bathroom and sat down in his chair, slumping like the bones had been removed from his body. After flipping further through Belle's file, he'd been forced to run to the bathroom and puke up whatever had been left in his stomach from his last meal. The reason her file was twice as large was because they had a complete case file of her suicide included. There were pictures of the crime scene. Even to a trained nerve, they were unnerving. Gruesome was an understatement.

Belle hadn't simply killed herself, oh no. She'd had what the medical examiner had called 'a fit of madness', and in this bout of raging hallucinations, and god knows what else, she'd managed to claw her own skin down to the bone in places. There were bloody patches all over her body from this, some worse than others, and bruises spotted her where she'd thrown herself into walls and other large objects. She'd been in a back alley in France when this happened, and Zexion explained that sometimes when there were exceptionally difficult cases, his firm would be called to treat patients abroad. This was one of those cases.

The problem was that there were some unexplainable wounds. Her jaw was shattered as if someone twice her size had punched her with intent to kill. Her arm was broken in a manner that seemed impossible for someone to inflict on themselves; but the blows that did her in were one to her gut, and one to her throat. First she'd clawed at her stomach until the organs and bodily fluids were spilling out, then she'd killed herself by tearing her own throat out. Most people couldn't stomach photos of a crime scene this graphic. Zexion tried to be comforting by explaining that he himself hadn't been able to hold a meal down and could barely sleep for months after he'd seen it in person. Photos are bad enough, but being at the crime scene itself means there're textures and smells that are a hundred times more stomach churning than anything two dimensional can give you. Not to mention he'd known the victim, personally.

The two sat in silence, Belle's file ominously taking up a large portion of the table. Zexion had taken the time to shut it while Axel was out of the room. After a long bout of silence passed between them, Zexion spoke, "Belle had spoken of an organization. They wore long black coats with hoods to cover their faces in shadow, and were lead by a man named Xemnas, who she would often refer to as a demon, or the devil. For her there were two who tormented her on a regular basis, but only one that would really haunt her nightmares."

Frowning, Axel looked up at that. Zexion met his eyes as he continued, "Belle had a terrible childhood. Her father was crazy, and she'd taken beatings from him on a regular basis growing up, to the point where she'd been near death on more than one occasion. However, there were rare few periods of lucidity where he would be the most loving and tender father imaginable, so Belle held a soft spot in her heart for him." Zexion's fist clenched at this, Axel noticed, but kept his eyes on the smaller man's, silently consenting for him to finish the story. "This is what we believed led to trigger her delusions. When her father died, it was a catastrophic blow to her, and she'd already been emotionally and mentally unstable due to the complicated and abusive relationship she'd had with her only parent. She had no other family, no friends, and during her mourning, she'd 'met' the two characters who promised to make it better, who told her that in exchange for her soul they could bring her father back."

"However, after she'd agreed, she wasn't allowed to see her father, and this is when her real demon started to appear. Lexeus was a man she claimed to have met through her two patrons, and he was supposedly the one responsible for her beatings. Never sexual, only physical. At times he'd be a better companion than her father ever had been. She… fell in love with a figment of her imagination, so to speak."

Axel nodded finally breaking eye contact, "This matches up so perfectly… I think I understand a bit better now…" A sob came from his mouth. It was sudden, and Zexion jumped at the sound. Axel was crying. "How can we fix this?" Looking up at Zexion, his eyes were begging, "Tell me, what we can do? I can't live knowing Roxas is going to turn out like this!" he made a vague gesture towards Belle's file."

Zexion gave Axel a compassionate look, but it quickly faded to its stoic seriousness. His eyes went dark. "Axel, Belle's case was bad, but she was prone to schizophrenia by her father's madness and a whole separate person in all."

Axel scrunched his face, he didn't understand. Zexion continued before he could question things, "Roxas wasn't prone to mental illness. His family history, in that sense of the term at least, is clean. Which makes Roxas' case both better and worse, depending on how you look at it."

The sleight-haired man gave a push to Roxas' file, lying on the table next to Belle's. Axel picked it up cautiously, as if it could burn him. Opening it he began to read the case notes.

Roxas had lived in a pleasant family. He had two dads, a biological mom of sorts, and a twin brother. Apparently though, there'd been a bully or two at school. Roxas often came home with evidence of beatings; bruises, broken bones and such. It wasn't until they'd first seen him at the institution that anyone found out Roxas had been sexually assaulted on several occasions as well… his tormenter had been named Seifer, and was brought up on rape charges shortly after, but based on a physical examination, the kind of things he did to Roxas were grotesque and brutal. They left scars on his body, and in his mind, and were the beginnings of what caused Roxas mind to fray around the edges.

A short few years ago, he'd had a girlfriend named Kairi who, as many young boys can be, he was madly in love with. One day though, he'd caught her making moves on his twin brother, who he often felt inferior to, being a misfit and seemingly inadequate in everything compared to Sora's success everywhere he sought it. The abuse didn't help these feelings of insecurity, so Roxas, arguably emotionally unstable already, interrupted them and beat his brother unconscious. He ran out of their house after, looking for a way to vent the pain and anger, and Kairi ran after him. She was hit by a semi when she ran into a crosswalk behind him on a red light. This was the second part of what caused Roxas' mind to finally unravel, but not what triggered it.

Traumatized by seeing his girlfriend's body smattered across the road, Roxas fled back to his home. In a bout of poor judgment due to his already growing mental incapacities the boy saw himself as a danger to everyone around him, so he decided to pack a bag and leave home, only to feel his anger toward his family reignited. Why didn't they notice when he was beaten and raped? Why didn't they care that Kairi was the only happiness he had, and his twin, the 'better' him, had tried to steal that from him when he already had everything? Why did he have to suffer so much when they suffered so little? So Roxas set fire to his room and left his house. He'd meant it to be a destructive thing, but he'd forgotten that Sora was lying unconscious in his bedroom. Sora died in the fire.

Thus, a piece of Roxas' mind was irreversibly shattered. It wasn't long before the police found him, and not long after that before they realized the help he needed. His parents tried to be a part of his life, but he reminded them too much of their dead son, his twin, and stopped coming after a time. He would often get hateful and threatening letters from Sora's friends. This is when his brain created Saix. From a psychiatrist's perspective, Saix was a way for Roxas to punish himself for what had happened. In some ways, it was what kept him lucid. In other ways it was frightening, because if the sheer intensity of damage the boy would inflict on himself given the chance was any indication; his self hate was to a degree Zexion admitted to never have seen or heard of before. But the mystery of it all was the link to Belle's case. The story he told of two figures offering to save Kairi. The wounds that he couldn't possibly have given himself. Lastly, and differently from Belle's, his body would often show trauma from sexual abuse and rape.

Zexion had taken belle's file with him when he left, but Roxas' file remained on the table. Axel went into the living room to think. What could he possibly do to help? Roxas past had been terrible. No person should have to go through what he'd gone through. He wanted to help, but he didn't have the slightest idea how.

XXX

Roxas woke up slowly, and this time wasn't surprised to find himself in Axel's room. He waited a long moment to mentally assess himself. There were the obvious aches and pains, but they weren't as bad as they should have been, meaning Namine had probably doctored him up. He didn't deserve this. People who cared about him.

After a long moment, Roxas rolled out of the bed. His body screamed at him, and was not pleased when he ignored it, standing and walking towards the door to go downstairs. It was painful to walk, thanks to the abuse he'd taken earlier.

When he reached the bottom of the stairs and made his way to the kitchen, Roxas noticed two things. First, Axel was nowhere to be seen. Second, there was a manila file with his name on it sitting on the kitchen table. He didn't really feel anything towards the second, but a small part of him wished Axel was there. He didn't much want to be alone right now.

Dealing with what he could control at the moment, Roxas walked up to the file and picked it up, flipping through it and scanning the contents. He knew his own back-story, and what the doctors thought. But the fact that this was here meant that now Axel did too.

Digging through the drawers in the kitchen, Roxas pulled out a long sheet of aluminum foil and wrapped it around the file before putting the whole thing in the microwave and setting it to run for ten minutes.

The aluminum popped and crackled and it wasn't long before the folder was in flames and smoke was starting to seep from the microwave. Roxas heard a faint noise and looked up to see Axel standing next to him, watching the file burn.

They let it burn for about five minutes before Axel stopped it, leaving the smoking device to itself and left the room in favor of the couch in the living room. Roxas followed. All this time neither of them spoke.

They sat next to each other for a long time before Roxas finally broke the silence, "So. How's Zexion?"

He'd somewhat expected Axel to stiffen at the question and then sputter into trying to defend himself for bringing someone the blonde so obviously disdained into the picture. Axel did nothing of the sort. He merely stared forward and sighed.

"I'm not going to let you die like that girl did," he finally answered.

Roxas waited a moment, then nodded, too numb to really feel anything about the statement. Whether he clawed his own throat out or not when the time was right would be up to him, not Axel, but he appreciated the sentiment nonetheless.

"What they didn't tell you in the file," Roxas began, "was that it actually took a month for the police to decide I was too mentally unstable to be tried, and realize that they didn't have enough evidence to convict me anyway. I couldn't go to the institution until the cops were done with me, and I had to live somewhere…" Roxas trailed off like he wasn't going to finish, but when Axel glanced in his direction he saw pain in the boy's face. This was painful for him to talk about.

Roxas continued, "I lived with a foster parent of sorts for that month… I can't remember his name, but I call him Saix now, which should clear up a lot of things for you."

Again, Axel felt caught, wanting to do or say something to help, but knowing whatever Roxas was about to tell him had already happened, years ago, and he couldn't stop it, or make it easier, or make it feel better. Instead, he had a question, "Why didn't you tell anyone what he did to you? The police could have moved you to different foster care. And what about that other kid, Seifer?"

Roxas drew his knees to his chest and hid his face between them. "Seifer was only a one time thing. He'd cornered me, and was stronger than me, and thought it would be fun to sodomize me; but he didn't do any of the terrible things that Zexion blames him for…" Roxas flinched at the thought of this, but continued, "As for not telling anyone, about a week after they'd placed me under foster care, Sora's best friend, and our family friend from childhood, Riku, killed himself." The small blonde seemed to clench as he said this. As if saying the name alone did something to him physically.

Axel wasn't sure, but he thought Roxas was crying. He didn't touch him, he just let him get it out. "So I let Saix do what he wanted. I deserved it. I was worse than trash… but when they moved me from his home to the institution he'd still visit. That's why I ran away. After years of it, I was so scared that I'd see him in mirrors, in shadows, and it broke something inside of me to have that much raw fear running through me, constantly."

The redhead finally reached a hand over and placed it on Roxas' back. Tension that he hadn't realized was there melted away from the smaller boy. They sat like that for a long time before Axel finally said, "I don't care if you think you're the sorriest, least-deserving son of a bitch on this shithole of a planet, I'm going to stay by your side. If you run, I'll find you. I'm going to protect you."

Roxas looked up, and his eyes were red and puffy. He gave a dry laugh, "Then you're possibly the stupidest masochistic freak I've ever been sorry to meet."

Axel smirked, and leaned forward, closing his eyes and placing his lips softly on the blonde's. Roxas didn't hesitate; he merely gave in and enjoyed a moment of closeness with someone. It was a chaste kiss, and Axel pulled away almost too soon, but wrapped his arms around the smaller boy and drew him into his chest, breathing slowly as Roxas fell into a deep sleep hugging Axel, and for the first time in what felt like a hundred years, Roxas slept peacefully.

**SRY ROXAS! GAH this chapter is depressing :E oh well. R&R plz!**


	13. Insanity

**JEBUS! Sorry for the wait on the update, but my external hard drive crashed, and it had ALL MY FANFICTIONS IN PROGRESS saved onto it. I've been trying to find somewhere to get it fixed, and therefore put off updating anything, but eventually I caved and just wrote this chapter from scratch. Thanks for all of you who've kept reading this from when I first started publishing, and those who've started since. Enjoy!**

_Six Months Later_

"Roxas!" the boy heard his named called in the distance, but couldn't bring himself to listen.

"Roxas? It's Axel, look I brought you some new flowers to replace the old ones." Axel, without waiting for permission or acknowledgment switched out a fistful of pink and white carnations for a fistful of sunflowers. The redhead had gone back to school shortly after Roxas had agreed to return to the institution as an in-patient, and visited him every day since. Once a week he brought flowers.

Roxas turned from where he'd been standing next to the large, gated windows that loomed over the courtyard. He silently made his way to the vase and pressed his face into the golden petals, soaking in their scent. "Thank you" he said, and smiled softly.

Axel grinned at the acknowledgement and sat down on the bunk in Roxas' room. His roommate, Vincent, was more or less a vegetable, having been lobotomized twenty years prior, and couldn't be bothered to talk about anything apart from capes and cell phones. Nonetheless Axel turned and waved a pleasant hello to him and Vincent, as always, simply stared ahead from the chair he'd been placed in an hour ago by the nurses, muttering his crazies at a polite whisper.

Shrugging into a more relaxed posture, the redhead looked up at Roxas and chattered, "So what should we do today? I was thinking I could talk to Zexion and see if maybe he'd let me take you out of here for a bit. It's been nearly two weeks since you've stepped out of this over-sterilized block of crazy. You're due for an adventure."

Roxas merely stared at the flowers. They were beautiful. Sunflowers were his favorites.

"Roxas?" Axel asked, the first hint of caution in his voice. He drew himself to his feet and walked over to the sunflowers, smiling patiently at the boy he'd been caring for for half a year now. "Rox, we could go to the gardens across town? Its winter so little waterfalls and ponds will be frozen over, and everything will undoubtedly be covered in snow. Its gotta be beautiful this time of year, not to mention we'd have the place to ourselves. No one thinks to go to the gardens in winter."

Roxas lifted a hand to gently stroke the petals on the sunflower. He sort of felt like Axel was a movie playing around him, as if he wasn't really being spoken to, wasn't really involved. For the sake of being polite, he forced himself to look up at Axel and replied, "Sure, Axel. Sounds lovely."

However unsure he may have been before, Axel's confidence was restored fully by that comment alone. He practically jumped off the ground with excitement. "Great! I'll go talk to Zex and get you signed out for the day. Wait here."

Roxas turned back to the flower, his movements slow, like sap dripping from a tree. Axel was the polar opposite, almost jittery with energy. The redhead exited the room and made his way down the familiar hall, walls painted an alarmingly clean white, and tiles a similar stark color but freckled with grays. At the end of the hallway, between the housing dorms for in-patients and the day rooms, Axel found the staff offices, Zexion's included. Without knocking, he turned the knob and walked in, smile suddenly gone from before.

xxx

"Yes, I'll be happy to come take a look. Uh-huh. Yes, sounds quite exquisite." Zexion looked up at the sound of his door opening, nodded at Axel to take a seat at one of the over-stuffed leather chairs in front of his desk, then turned back to his computer, typing something furiously.

"I'm sorry, but something just came up, can I call you back to confirm the appointment? Yeah? Okay, thank you so much. Goodbye." The sleight-haired doctor hung up the phone and gave a disapproving look to Axel. "You really should knock. What if I'm having an important meeting?"

"Six months, Zex. Six _mother fucking _months! Are you still giving him those goddamned sedatives?" Axel was shouting, but Zexion was used to it. Almost every time he came in he had some complaint to make about the way Roxas was being cared for.

The smaller man rolled his eyes and swiveled in his chair to face Axel, leaning forward and folding his hands on his desk, "No, I told you last week that we'd finished weaning him off the meds. He's clean."

Axel ran a hand through his hair and cursed. "Then what the fuck else are you doing to him here? Obviously there's something wrong with your treatment. I mean have you seen him? Six months ago he was a mess, but he was still human! He'd laugh and cry like a normal person."

It was Zexion's turn to frown seriously, "Yes, now that you mention it, I have noticed a significant lack of… luster to him. He's pleasant, but its like he's an empty shell or something."

Axel stood and began to pace in front of the large, wooden desk. "Shit… What do we do? Zexion, we're fucking losing him, I can feel it." The taller man turned abruptly and threw his palms down on the desk. "I can't lose him, you know that."

Zexion sighed, "Let's just get through today. He's always better when you're with him, so just keep him busy, try to engage him as much as possible, and whatever you do," Zexion's eyes narrowed dangerously, "Don't fucking bring up the past. Everything is now. Got it? Don't ask him what's wrong, don't ask him why he's being weird."

Axel grunted and answered, seethingly, "I've been coming here every day since you got him back, I think I know just as well as you do what's off limits. Remember, for every conniption I've caused, you're fucking therapists have caused ten."

Zexion nodded. Axel was right in that respect, but he still felt better saying it.

Xxx

Roxas admired his new flowers while he waited for Axel. They were so pretty, and warm. He could almost feel summer in their petals. The dark circle in the middle was textured like rough dirt, and left pollen on his fingers. He was staring at this curiously when he saw movement out of the corner of his eye.

Curious, the small blonde turned to look and shrieked at what he saw. Larxene sat in a chair in the corner of his room, casually sharpening her kunai as if he weren't in the room watching her. Panicking, Roxas began to stumble backwards, accidentally knocking over the vase in the process. The glass shattered and he screamed. "A-Already?" he cried, hot tears falling down his cheeks, "But you said you'd give me time. You said-"

"You've had time. Last time you saw me was four months ago, and we made a deal; You'd be left alone with your… whatever he is until we deemed it time to terminate your contract. Its time." Larxene stopped the motion with her hands and looked up at the boy for the first time. At first her face was neutral as her voice but, whether to taunt him or simply because she enjoyed it Roxas' would never know, she curled her lips back into a terrible snarl of a grin.

It frightened him. It made the blanch and nauseous. Shaking, he took an unstable step forward and, before he'd thought it through entirely, Roxas picked up a shard of the broken vase and charged the blonde demon, crying out wordlessly as he ran across the room.

"What's wrong?" Axel panted, slightly out of breath from running once he'd heard the commotion, but once inside he took no time to hesitate. "No, Roxas!" the taller boy took advantage of his lanky arms and reached out, snaking an arm around Roxas and throwing both of them to the ground. Roxas was yelling and cursing at him, but Axel held him securely. "NURSE!" Axel yelled. A young girl in light blue scrubs came in and the moment she saw the scene said, "Oh no, I'll go get Zexion!" and ran out of the room. Axel cursed her lack of sense and proceeded to restrain Roxas' thrashing body single handedly until Zexion could come to the room and sedate him.

He felt an angry tear run down his cheek as he pressed his face against' the side of the boy in his arms' and spoke softly in attempt to comfort himself more than anything, "Shhh… Roxas, you're okay. No one's trying to hurt you. I've got you, Axel's here. You'll be alright. Shhh…" After six months, though, even Axel was beginning to lose hope. It was like Roxas was slipping away and no matter how tightly he grabbed he was just going to slip through Axel's fingers.

Xxx

"Roxas?"

Roxas moaned. His head hurt. They'd tranquilized him again. Oh he so did not to wake up yet.

"Roxas? Wake up."

Cursing under his breath, the blonde rolled over in his bed and opened his eyes, slowly. It was dusk, there was an orange hue to the room from sunset. He'd been out a long time.

Looking up Roxas saw Zexion sitting in a chair in front of him. He turned and Axel was at the foot of his bed. Not good. The two of them together and not yelling at each other about stupid things was always bad. It meant they'd agreed on something because of him. He really didn't feel like explaining himself at the moment.

As if on cue, Zexion spoke, "Good, you're awake. We need to talk, Roxas."

Roxas tried to sit up, and only then became aware of the padded restraints on his wrists. He could sit up, but they cuffed his hands together, so he looked awkward doing it. "Why did you cuff me?" he asked, honestly unsure of the answer. They'd had to restrain him before, but never just his hands. Hand cuffs were for the violent patients, the ones who hurt other patients. He only ever hurt himself.

"Roxas, you attacked Vincent," Axel's voice answered, gently. What? He hadn't done anything of the sort. Roxas opened his mouth to defend himself, but stopped short when he remembered Larxene. He'd been seeing things again… She'd told him his time was up… Oh…

"Roxas? Roxas? What's wrong? What happened?" Axel leaned forward, using one hand to hold himself up and the other to brush the hair from Roxas' face.

Zexion looked pained, as if he knew what he should do but didn't want to do it. When Roxas turned to look, he saw Vincent wasn't in the room. "We had to move him, Roxas. Honestly, he's not going to notice a different room for the night, but we had to isolate you, just in case," Zexion explained, quietly. Roxas could only nod. He'd attacked Vincent. If he hadn't been there he wouldn't believe it. But this just meant he was getting worse… it was like Larxene said. He'd had a period of lucidity, but it almost made him too lax with apathy. He'd forgotten why he was here… and now?

"I'm getting worse," he said aloud. Axel stiffened at the statement.

Zexion's eyes were startled for a moment, then turned to sympathy. He nodded, "I believe so, yes."

Axel looked between the two frantically before contributing, "No, you're wrong! Roxas, listen to me," Roxas turned to look at him, but his face was empty. He knew it, and he knew Axel was in denial. "You've been fine for months! Yeah, sure, the therapy's been a bitch, and you had bad flashbacks, but this is your first real hallucination in months! That has to mean something! Tell him, Zexion, you could even take him off the meds!" Axel looked to Zexion pleadingly, and the psychiatrist had to look away.

"Axel, It's because he took me off the meds that I… that this happened," Roxas explained, gently.

Axel turned to him and looked like a kicked puppy, "Rox, you can't be serious. Even if it is the meds that kept you lucid, that just means you go back on them and you'll be fine, you aren't worse. Right?"

Roxas shook his head, and when he looked back to Axel his face was void of any emotion, "Axel, I've never attacked someone else through a fit. The fact that I attacked Vincent means I'm worse than ever, and no medicine is going to reverse that."

Zexion stood abruptly and walked to the foot of the bed, facing away from Roxas and Axel, who was rambling now, trying to argue with the small blonde who was silent. He'd said all that needed to be said for now.

When Zexion turned back Axel had wrapped his arms around Roxas and was glaring at Zexion over his shoulder. The smaller man suddenly felt years beyond his age. Tiredly, he ran a hand over his face and spoke as if he wanted nothing more than to give up. "Nothing's conclusive. We'll keep trying. But today's been a long day. The nurses are pretty freaked out, and it took a lot of convincing to get the other doctors on staff to let me leave you in a normal room instead of solitary confinement. I'll leave you two alone, but visiting hours were over two hours ago, so, Axel, I'd appreciate it if you didn't dawdle. Roxas?" their eyes met and suddenly Zexion felt fear. Fear that something was terribly wrong. Fear that he couldn't control any of this, and that Roxas would end like Belle did… It took him a moment to recover before he finished, "We'll talk in the morning." And with that he turned and left the room, forcing himself not to run away screaming. At that moment, he wanted nothing more than to go home to Demyx, snuggle up and forget everything about his job. Sure, he loved parts of it, but other parts just fucking terrified him.

"Goodnight!" Axel called after him, but once the doctor was out of sight he pressed his face into Roxas' golden muss of hair and whispered, "Arrogant fuckin' prick, thinks he knows everything."

At that, Roxas smiled, if only a little.

xxx

Axel needed to leave soon. Zexion would yell at him if he stayed much longer, but neither of the boys could draw themselves from the window, even though the sun was long set, and now the moonlight was shining in on them from the same barred window.

The two had been staring out at the courtyard silently for a solid fifteen minutes before Axel finally opened his mouth to say something, but Roxas beat him to it. "You should stop coming to see me."

Axel's head snapped toward Roxas like a triggered bear trap. "What do you mean? Of course I'm not going to stop."

Without looking up at Axel, Roxas spoke calmly, as if talking about the weather, "I don't want to see you here anymore. You just remind me of how sick I am, and how I can never really be normal." He didn't mean it. Not a word of it. He wanted Axel with him constantly. He wanted nothing more in that moment than to press every inch of his body up against Axel and hold him until it was morning. He wanted to kiss him, and wrap himself up in the taller boy, because the redhead he'd met so long ago on a park bench really was the only thing that did make him feel normal. But he couldn't have normal, not really, and before the night was through he needed to be sure that Axel had moved on from him, from all of this. No one deserved to deal with the shit he made Axel deal with, so he needed to sound believable.

Quietly, Axel hesitated before asking, "Do you really mean that?"

Roxas felt his heart ache as he said, firmly, "Yes."

Axel didn't move for a moment, and Roxas was scared that he didn't believe him, that he was going to start yelling and arguing like he always did, but a second later he turned and began to walk toward the door. Stopping just before he crossed the threshold, Axel called back, "Don't give up. I'm leaving you so you can get better, so do it and come back to me. Don't you fucking give up."

Roxas hesitated, but answered, "I won't." It was a lie. Axel probably knew it was a lie, but he left anyway, because Roxas had asked him to. The blonde was secretly just glad that Axel hadn't looked at his face, because tears were trailing down his cheeks as he stared out at the moon. It was a beautiful night, and Roxas cried because he desperately wanted Axel to stay in spite of all the reasons he couldn't let him. He cried through the night, unable to sleep, and for the first time in months felt incredibly, unbearably alone.

Xxx

**Buzz Buzz**

_Hmmm…._

**Buzz Buzz**

_ What the? Ugh Ignoring it…_

**Buzz Buzz**

_… FUCK._

Axel rolled over in bed and picked up his cell phone. Flipping it open he held it up to his ears and groggily answered, "Hullo?"

"Axel? This is Zexion."

"What? Zexion, you ass, its fucking…." Axel looked over at the alarm clock on the nightstand. It was 3:00 AM. "_Three in the goddamn morning? _Are you shitting me?"

"AXEL, Listen, dammit!" Zexion shouted across the phone line, Axel shut up. "I just got a call from one of the graveyard nurses at the institution-"

The redhead sat up in bed, interrupting the other man, "What happened? Is Roxas alright? Should I drive down there now?"

Zexion was silent for a moment before he answered, "Axel, I don't know. Roxas is gone."

**CLIFF HANGER! Only one chapter left for this fic*GASP*. I might add an epilogue, but it really depends on the flow of the next chapter, so we'll see. It makes me sad that it'll be done, I've grown really attached to it after all these long months, but I think it really did a number on my skillz as a writer, not to mention helped me branch out a lot. R&R. If you want a happy ending, beg for it! If you want a tragedy, prove to me why it should be! I already know what I'm doing, but I'd love to hear from you guys ;D**


	14. A New Beginning

**Hey all! Sorry I know its been MONTHS, but I started University, had midterms, got a boyfriend of decently nerdy potential, and have just been swamped in general. I'm sad to say this is the last chapter, and its probably shorter than you'd all like, but I think it's a pretty sweet ending, so have fun reading, and thank you for staying with me until the very end! I love all my readers!**

Roxas had snatched a nurse's key during room checks. It wasn't hard. He was a good, trustworthy patient that normally wouldn't do anything of the sort. Escaping was also surprisingly easy. He'd done it once before, but it still shocked him how anti-climactic walking out the front door of an asylum was. No alarms or humongous search lights. If anything he felt like it was a little boring for an escape act.

The blonde was standing over the cliffs he'd spent so much time at as a child, and again with Larxene and Marluxia. So many bad memories, but he was always drawn back to the scenery. Looking down he watched the waves crash into the rocks below as the crisp air bit at his face. It was cold, but that didn't matter.

A warm tear slid down his face and the boy sniffed, wiping it away roughly. "I'm so sorry. Axel, forgive me," Larxene had an unfamiliarly solemn look on her face as she looked on. Marluxia was placid as always. And with that, Roxas jumped.

Xxx

Axel arrived at the asylum at approximately 3:45 am. It took them an hour before the police caught whiff of where Roxas had gone. The eccentric redhead was the first to reach the cliffs, and when he did it shattered him. Screaming wordlessly, crying and thrashing. Zexion did his best to comfort, but nothing anyone said could calm Axel. Roxas was gone. Just like Belle.

The college kid tried to kill himself almost immediately. He got home and slit his wrists in the bathtub, cliché as it was, but Zexion was smart enough to check on him and get him to the hospital in time to save his life. It was three months after he'd been admitted as an inpatient at the same asylum Roxas had been a patient at when he finally managed to hang himself with a volleyball net in the gym. He left a suicide note, reading:

_To Whom It May Concern:_

_They're real. I met the bastards in black coats that took Roxas from me, and I finally understand everything. They offered to save Roxas for me, to bring him back from the dead. I know they can't though. No one can._

_I'm going to be with the one I love. Don't blame yourselves, it was my choice. I miss him too much. _

_The best of luck to you all, _

_Axel_

Xxx

A small boy around five years old built a sandcastle on a beach in the destiny isles. His older brother was off playing with his two best friends, leaving the child alone, as he was accustom to. The waves lapped up the sand at the bottom of his miniature, causing him much stress as he desperately attempted to scoop a moat big enough to shield his creation.

"Hi!" blurted a childishly squeaky voice from behind him. The boy screeched in surprised fear and, simultaneously attempting to both turn his body towards the voice and back away from it, fell onto his structure, crushing it beyond repair. Looking beneath him, the boy felt his lip quiver and tears well in his eyes. He began to cry.

The new arrival jumped, not expecting his greeting to cause such a reaction, and he immediately knelt down and began attempting to sooth the other child. Sniveling, the smaller boy looked up at the stranger. He was a skinny, lanky, awkward child of approximately the same age. All the blonde kid noticed, however, was his insanely untamed crop of red hair and piercing green eyes. The redhead grinned sheepishly, "Sorry I scared you, I just thought maybe we could play together," he stuck a pudgy hand out towards the blonde as an offer to help him up, the blonde, hesitantly, accepted it and was lifted to his feet. The redhead beamed, "The name's Axel, got it memorized? I'm five years old, and with my help we can build the best sandcastle the islands have ever seen!"

The other boy blinked owlishly, unsure of what to make of the offer. Cautiously nodding, the blonde ran a nervous hand through his golden hair, equally wild as Axel's thanks to beach water and falling in sand. "My name is Roxas."

The children proceeded to build sandcastle after sandcastle until the sun began to grow fiery in a desperate attempt to cling to the day; but eventually dusk took over and they were called back home. It wouldn't be the last time they saw each other. A friendship had been reborn.

The End

**Wow, okay. Understated, short and hella sappy. Sorry if this wasn't the big bang you wanted it to be, but I'm overall very satisfied with my story. Thanks so much to everyone whose been reviewing and reading this whole time! I can't believe its finally over. Tell me your thoughts/feelings! **


End file.
